crash site

Shelby texted me early today to see if I wanted a ride to the airport. I gladly accepted her offer and off we went. The flight was short and uneventful, though I did have to take a few heavy phone calls when I landed. In case you're just tuning in, my dad was killed yesterday in a plane crash, so I had to leave SF to visit my family in Seattle. As soon as I got to my mom's house, we went up to Mukilteo to see the crash site, where we met a bunch of neighbourhood folks who were very nice to us. The guy whose yard it crashed into wasn't there when it happened, but talked with us a while, and let me use his saw to take a bit of the tree that my father's plane slammed into. I think I need to get something carved from it. The site was heavily burned in a very localised area, with big gashes in the lawn where a wing cut in. The NTSB and FAA hauled away the wreckage for the investigation, so there was just charred bushes and torn up earth where the wreck once had been. I took a few pictures.

approach path

finally came to rest here

all the trees like this nearby are very bushy, this one had all it's leaves burned off

a wing hit here

the tree that stopped the plane

Next door was a retired fireman who actually ran out to try and extinguish the huge fire that burst from the plane. All he had was a garden hose, and he couldn't get within 40 feet of the fire because it was so hot. He said that the plane came down so hard that my father must have been killed or at least knocked unconscious on impact. This makes sense because his plane was a special aerobatic plane with very small wings which facilitate fast turns, etc. Unfortunately, without power, those wings have no ability to glide, thus his Yakilov 55 fell like a stone. Each neighbour noted that he must have been very skilled to have missed the houses by such a narrow space, and they also observed that he seemed to be trying to reach a long, flat field near the house. Across the street we met a family that was home when the plane flew over their house on it's way down. The mother of the family was in tears as she told us how thankful she was for my father taking such care to miss houses in his descent... her two daughters were inside playing that day. I met them: a 10 year old named Kaylie and an 11 year old named Victoria. They were such beautiful little girls, wide eyed and jumpy. I hope I have daughters like that some day. They were clearly nervous to meet the family of the man they knew as "the pilot". Looking at those little girls, I realised how much worse this could have been, and got pretty choked up. So did Ethan and my mom. I don't think I'll ever forget that little girl's face. I'd like to think that my dad had people like Kaylie in mind when he gave that last effort to miss those houses. Kaylie and Victoria's dad said a prayer, which was a little awkward for us... me being an atheist and my mom being an old school "close to the chest" style Catholic. But, his intentions were really sweet and genuine, so we bowed our heads and respectfully took in his improvised prayer. I always feel weird when religious people pray for me because I don't think that it does any good. But, at the same time, it makes me feel good because I know it's something that is special to them. I always appreciate it when people share something personal with me, and so I always take a prayer as a really nice gesture on their part. This week is going to be packed with arrangements, meetings, financial planning, and consoling. The phone calls keep coming in from friends and colleagues of my dad. There are a lot of sad people in Seattle today.

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