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Aircraft drops fire retardant over site of fatal plane crash
Two firefighters died Saturday in a plane crash while assisting with the Cedar Basin Fire near Wikieup.
Michele Machholz
Federal authorities investigating the fatal crash of a small plane that was responding to a wildfire in northwestern Arizona included an account of the possibility that the aircraft’s left wing fell off, according to a preliminary report released Tuesday.
The preliminary report, issued by the National Transportation Safety Board, detailed information about the last known flight details and appears to offer credence to a witness account told to The Arizona Republic about the crash.
Both people aboard Beechcraft King Air C-90 aircraft — retired Tucson-area fire chief Jeff Piechura with the Coronado National Forest and pilot Matthew Miller with the U.S. Forest Service — died in the July 10 crash.
Arizona Bureau of Land Management officials said the turbo-prop plane went down as it was doing aerial reconnaissance and helping direct aviation resources over a lightning-caused wildfire burning outside Wikieup, located about 123 miles northwest of Phoenix.
The NTSB report said the plane had been observing the fire for about 45 minutes and final radar data showed it began a 200-foot descent approximately 0.15 miles east of the crash site.
The plane crashed at 12:55 p.m. into the side of a ridgeline, close to the time suggested by the Federal Aviation Administration. BLM officials, however, previously said the crash occurred closer to noon.
After the crash, the wreckage was consumed by fire and debris scattered across several acres. The report also noted that the left wing of the plane was found approximately 0.79 miles northeast of the wreckage and was not damaged by heat or fire.
Michele Machholz reportedly witnessed the plane’s steep dive from her home, told The Republic that within a matter of seconds it crashed and was followed by a “big black plume of giant black smoke.”
Machholz and her husband drove towards the crash site an hour later and she said BLM personnel told them a wing fell off the plane before it crashed.
BLM officials said they couldn’t confirm that information, however, and were leaving it to investigators to determine the cause of the crash, including whether the wing had fallen off before the plane hit the ground.
A final report detailing the full investigation and the crash’s probable cause may not be released for one to two years, according to NTSB officials.
It is not known if an autopsy was performed on the bodies of Piechura and Miller, however, their remains were returned to their families for private services on July 22.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Reach breaking news reporter Monica D. Spencer at [email protected] or on Twitter @monicadspencer.
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