Two people were killed late Monday afternoon when a small home-built aircraft crashed into a field east of Albany in Oregon, the Linn County Sheriff’s Office and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said. The cause was not immediately known.
The accident happened at around 3:35 p.m. local time on Monday when the Van’s Aircraft RV-6 (N424D), a two-seat home-built plane, was flying just south of the town of Scio in Linn County. Witnesses reported seeing the small plane crossing a local road before banking left over Highway 226.
“While turning to the left, part of the wing became separated from the plane and fell onto Highway 226 north of Brewster Road,” said Undersheriff Bruce Riley of the Linn County Sheriff’s Office. “The plane came to rest several thousand feet south of the intersection in a cow pasture.”
The two people on board the aircraft, who were both killed upon impact, were identified as 46-year-old Timothy Dean Carter, of Portland, and 45-year-old Jeff Earl Kropf, of Halsey. Carter was the owner of the aircraft and had a Private Pilot License while Kropf had a Commercial Pilot License.
Authorities said the experimental aircraft, which was built in 1996, was on a pleasure flight and had departed the nearby Lebanon State Airport shortly before 3:30 p.m. local time. It was not immediately known what caused the aircraft to crash, but FAA spokesman Allen Kenitzer said both the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are investigating.
