10/15/2002

By KGW, NWCN, KREM, KTVB and AP Staff

Two men were killed and a third was injured when their Oregon-made airplane crashed while landing at a private airstrip in northern Idaho, according to officials with the Federal Aviation Administration.

Tuesday's crash happened about 9:20 a.m. about five miles east of the Coeur d'Alene Airport.

(KREM graphic/photo)

A passenger, 34-year-old Nate Calvin of Boise, was ejected and survived. He was being treated at Kootenai Medical Center for a broken leg, cuts and scrapes.

Kootenai County Sheriff's Capt. Ben Wolfinger said the men were employed by Chelton Flight Service of Boise, Idaho and were in the area on a business trip.

The crashed plane was registered to Lancair International, the company that designs and manufactures the experimental "kit" aircraft, which is headquartered in Redmond, Ore.

Bailey had worked for several years for Lancair, family friend Jake Jacobs told kgw.com. Bailey was also the son of well-known Portland health author Covert Bailey.

The Lancair IV plane apparently left the runway and struck a tree. The airframe was broken into several pieces and scattered over a small area.

The Federal Aviation Administration in Seattle confirmed that the aircraft crashed upside-down in a treeline. The FAA was conducting an investigation into the crash.

The Kootenai County Sheriff's Office cordoned off the crash site. An FAA representative was at the accident site Tuesday afternoon, but the National Transportation Safety Board was expected to lead the investigation, the FAA's Mike Fergus said.

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, there have been 12 crashes involving the Lancair IV model aircraft since 1997 resulting in the deaths of six people.

The Lancair IV is a four-seat passenger aircraft that can fly up to 1,450 statue miles without refueling and cruises at 335 MPH.

The Lancair Corporation made headlines recently when one of their aircraft, a Lancair Columbia 300 dubbed the "New Spirit of St Louis", was flown by Charles Lindbergh’s grandson Erik when he retraced the route of his grandfather’s historic 1929 Trans-Atlantic flight in May.

(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)