BannedCR500Riders.com

The Plane that crashed in Montana over the weekend was owned by the owner of Glen Helen Raceway. Bud is a big supporter of Hillclimbing and motorsports in general. Thoughts and prayers are with him and his family at this time.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090323/ap_ ... sh_montana


RP

Whoa, yes.

Damn!!!! That sucks!! His family are in my prayers.

Tragic

The FAA is leaning towards iceing, and a weight / balance issue as the probable cause....

Sad.

I just raced there yesterday. Very sad to hear after I got home.

BUTTE, Mont. (AP) — Families from Lodi and St. Helena were among those killed while on a winter ski getaway that ended in a plane crash in this central Montana city. Authorities are probing whether an overloaded cabin or ice might have contributed to the accident.

Fourteen people died Sunday when the single-engine Pilatus PC-12 nose-dived into a Catholic cemetery near the Butte airport and then burst into flames, officials and witnesses said.

With no cockpit data recorder on board the private flight, investigators say it could take months to pinpoint a cause. There was minimal communication between air traffic controllers and the pilot in the minutes leading up to the crash.

The plane's owner, Dr. Irving "Bud" Feldkamp, said he was waiting for his two daughters and their families to fly in from California for a week of skiing when he got a call that a small plane had gone down.

"We were at the entrance to the Yellowstone Club when I got a cell phone call" from a nephew, Feldkamp told The Associated Press. "He saw it on CNN. He said 'Nobody survived.' And we knew it was our plane."

Among the victims were two of Feldkamp's daughters, their husbands and five grandchildren ranging in age from 1 to 9.

The Sunday flight originated in Redlands, Calif. and then made two additional stops to pick up more passengers en route to Montana. Originally destined for Bozeman, the pilot diverted to Butte for unknown reasons.

While descending toward Butte's Bert Mooney Airport, the plane passed through a layer of air at about 1,500 feet that was conducive to icing because the temperatures were below freezing and the air "had 100 percent relative humidity or was saturated," according to AccuWeather.com, a forecasting service in State College, Pa.

Safety experts said similar icing condition existed when a Continental Airlines twin-engine turboprop crashed into a home near Buffalo Niagara International Airport in New York last month, killing 50.

A possible stall created by ice — and the pilot's reaction to it — has been the focus of the Buffalo investigation.

"It's Buffalo all over again, or it could be," said John Goglia, a former member of the National Transportation Safety Board. "Icing, given those conditions, is certainly going to be high on the list of things to look at for the investigators."

Former NTSB chairman Jim Hall said there were similarities between the Montana crash and a 2005 crash near Bellefonte, Pa., in which a pilot and five passengers were killed. The plane in both cases was the Pilatus PC 12/45, and in both there were reports of conditions conducive to icing at lower elevations and witness reports that the plane appeared to dive into the ground.

Mark Rosenker, acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board said overloading and equipment failure also were being examined. He said the plane had just 10 seats, including the two in the cockpit.

"It will take us a while to understand," he said. "We have to get the weights of all the passengers, we have to get the weight of the fuel, all of the luggage."

Feldkamp, a dentist and president of Glen Helen Raceway in Southern California, had planned for a weeklong vacation with his extended family at the Yellowstone Club, a millionaires-only resort south of Bozeman, Mont.

He drove out from California with his wife and another daughter, and they had planned to get together with the rest of the family at the club on Sunday night.

"We were going on a vacation with all the grandkids," Feldkamp said. "They were all excited about skiing."

Instead, Feldkamp spent part of Monday visiting the snowy crash scene with his wife, their two surviving children and other family members. For about 45 minutes, they stood in the Holy Cross Cemetery near the twisted and charred debris, talking with investigators as a light snow fell. Scattered across the site were tarps covering the remains of the victims.

Also on the scene was Bob Ching, who was to have hosted the Feldkamps this week at his house at the ultra-exclusive Yellowstone Club. Ching's son, Brent Ching, 37, of Durham, Calif., was killed along with his wife, Kristen, 31, and their children, Hailey, 5 and Caleb, 3.

The other victims were Feldkamp's daughters, Amy Jacobson, 34, of St. Helena, Calif., and Vanessa Pullen, 37, of Lodi, Calif. Jacobson's husband, Erin, 36, and their children Taylor, 4; Ava, 3; and Jude, almost 2, also died in the crash as did Pullen's husband, Michael, 39, and their children Sydney, 9, and Christopher, 7.

The pilot was identified as Buddy Summerfield, 65, of Redlands, Calif. Summerfield was a former military flyer who had logged 2,000 hours flying the type of plane that crashed, according to federal officials.

The plane was owned by Eagle Cap Leasing Inc. of Enterprise, Ore. The shareholders include Bud Feldkamp and Vanessa Pullen and Amy Jacobson, the company's lawyer, D. Rahn Hostetter said in a news release Monday.

Feldkamp's family has gone through tragedy before. Two years ago, his 10-month-old grandson, Chase, died after he was found to have slipped between a mattress and the edge of a bed during a nap. The child was taken to a hospital and was eventually taken off life support.

The child's father, Buddy Feldkamp, and his wife and children had planned to skip this winter's ski trip. They drove to Butte from Oregon on Sunday night after hearing news of the crash.


Sad, sad ,sad story.


Robie, If you hear of a way where the site can send condolences, flowers, etc... be sure to post it up.

Will do.

RP

I pulled our G-IV in between two PC-12's on the ramp last night in Boston and the thoughts of what that family is going through were on my mind. This is a real sad story and it's going to take a while before they figure out what really happened.

Quoted from MR. info GH family Memorial

The web site for Glen Helen has an address for Cards and Letter at this time. Glen Helen will let everyone know what they can do in the near future. Right now so much has happened in such a short time the Staff of Glen Helen has not spoken to Dr. Feldkamp as to his wishes. The families are together at this time and a release will be posted soon. The Management and staff of Glen Helen want to say Thank You for all the kindness you have shown. We are all a large Family and all feel great pain. We will rely on each other for strength and support. God Bless to all of you and again thank you for all the kind words and support.

Family Service info.
http://www.hospitalitydental.com/memorial.html

RP