Two local pilots dead after Daybreak-area crash

Posted

An April 29 plane crash in the Daybreak area left two Clark County pilots dead, and a full investigation on what led to the accident could take up to two years.

At around 4:15 p.m. a pilot flying over the area reported a downed aircraft south of the East Fork Lewis River at the dead end of Bjur Road, according to a news release from the Clark County Sheriff’s office. The pilot circled overhead while directing first responders to the scene.

Clark County Fire & Rescue personnel and Clark County Sheriff’s deputies located the single-engine, two-seater propeller plane which had crashed into a pond of about two feet of water.

The downed plane contained the bodies of two deceased males, the pilot and passenger, who appeared to have died on impact. The Clark County Medical Examiner’s office later identified the pilot as Milo Kays, 73, of Camas, and his passenger as Dennis Kozacek, 70, of Ridgefield.

The medical examiner’s office listed both of the occupants’ deaths as multiple blunt force injuries, a result of the crash.

Deputies secured the scene before Federal Aviation Administration officials arrived to investigate the crash. On May 1 the plane was retrieved from the water, National Transportation Safety Board Public Affairs Officer Peter Knudson told The Reflector.

“In the first few days the investigators are completely focused on documenting the on-scene wreckage,” Knudson said. He explained the plane was described as “intact” though wrecked — he explained in some cases a crash can have pieces of the plane scattered around the impact site. The plane was then moved to the Seattle area for additional analysis.

Knudson explained that the two in the plane were performing a biennial flight review as required by the Federal Aviation Administration where a pilot performs various maneuvers to show proficiency, judged by a certified flight instructor.



Knudson said the NTSB investigator on the case will write up a preliminary report containing information collected in the week or so following the incident, releasing it about two weeks after the crash.

“It won’t point to a cause; it won’t point to factors. It’s just ‘this is what we know at this very early point in this investigation,’” Knudson explained. The more in-depth report would feature information on the pilot, the plane and the environmental conditions such as weather, Knudson said. The timeframe for a final report was anywhere from 12 to 24 months.

“It’s very much a data-driven investigation. We go where the data takes us and we make our conclusions from that,” Knudson said. He said his agency would be working closely with the FAA to find that information.

Knudson said that currently there were no witnesses to the actual crash, just the pilot who saw the wreckage after the fact. He urged anyone who might have seen the crash take place to contact the NTSB at eyewitnessre

port@ntsb.gov or local authorities with what they know.

As to why the plane went down, that’s still left up to the investigation. Knudson explained a witness to the actual crash or any radio traffic noting something like a loss of fuel or control would help determine a cause, but both are absent in this case as of the current investigation.

Knudson said the lack of immediate clues to the cause of the crash wasn’t unusual for accidents. He added that of the 1,200-1,300 aviation accidents the NTSB investigates annually, only about 250 involve fatalities.