LAKEPORT, Calif. – A pilot and his passenger were injured on Saturday when the seaplane they were flying in crashed into Clear Lake.
The Lake County Sheriff's Office said the incident occurred late Saturday morning during the annual Clear Lake Seaplane Splash In, which is taking place this weekend at the old Natural High School property on N. Main St.
Lt. Corey Paulich said the aircraft involved was a Grumman Widgeon seaplane that was reported to have crashed offshore from Via Del Lago.
Lakeport Fire Chief Doug Hutchison said he saw the crash from his house, while he was out in his yard Saturday morning playing fetch with his dog.
Hutchison said he saw the plane come in for a landing on the lake, then there was a rooster tail of water and the sound of the impact.
He said he immediately called Central Dispatch to report the incident, and responded to the scene himself a short time later.
The Sheriff’s Marine Patrol responded to the area, locating the seaplane Seaplane in the water approximately 500 yards offshore, Paulich said.
Getting to the scene just ahead of the Marine Patrol were two Air Force pilots who were attending the event and driving a rented boat, along with Damon Trimble, a local pilot who in years past has been an event organizer and this year was driving a safety boat.
First Lt. Chris Dempsey and his friend Capt. Jared Wahleithner from Travis Air Force Base had flown to the event in Dempsey's plane on Friday and were in a boat nearby helping people to shore from a larger seaplane when the Grumman seaplane crashed.
Trimble and his safety boat also were helping offload the passengers when the incident occurred.
“It happened right behind us,” said Trimble.
Dempsey and Wahleithner said the entire episode happened very fast, with the seaplane looking and sounding normal beforehand.
“He was coming in and it just appeared that his gear was down,” Dempsey said, explaining that a pilot's biggest fear in a seaplane is accidentally leaving down the wheels. “It looked like a normal landing until his wheels touched the water.”
Trimble said the pilot, who was from out of the area, had just fueled up at Lampson Field. When he took off, he inadvertently left the wheels down, a situation that Trimble said the pilot would have noticed if he had been traveling any distance, since it would have slowed him down considerably.
However, with the airfield a short distance from the lake, “He didn't particularly notice any difference in performance,” said Trimble.
The plane has two wheels in the front and one in the back, which Trimble said pilots affectionately call “tail draggers.”
Just before the plane's hull touched the water, the wheels touched first, which abruptly stopped the plane's forward motion, causing it to flip over. The plane – which had been heading south – ended up facing to the north, Trimble said.
Dempsey said the plane came to rest with the nose down into the water, the tail in the air and the engine cutting off.
Trimble said his boat and the boat driven by Dempsey and Wahleithner arrived at the plane at about the same time.
Dempsey and Wahleithner threw a buoy to the pilot, who was just coming up out of the wreck. He had contusions to his face and appeared to be “pretty cut up,” said Dempsey.
When the passenger surfaced they helped him to the swim deck of their boat. He couldn't swim on his own due to his leg injuries, which they said included one broken leg, deep cuts and a possible fracture to the second leg, Dempsey said.
Trimble said the Marine Patrol boat had been down at the Fifth Street boat ramp and arrived at the scene just behind his boat and the one driven by the two Air Force pilots.
Trimble said the Sheriff's Marine Patrol deputies got the pilot – who had a big gash on his head – into their boat, while Dempsey said he and Wahleithner took the passenger to shore, using a life jacket to stabilize the man's broken leg.
Another man – whose name Trimble didn't know but who had been on the safety boat with him – also assisted in the rescue, getting into the water to help pull the injured men from the plane.
Trimble said a sheriff's deputy called Lakeport Fire – which Hutchison said had one engine standing by during the event – on the radio and had an ambulance meet them at the Fifth Street Boat Ramp.
Dempsey said both crash victims were coherent and had no spinal or breathing problems. “I just imagine the one guy will need some pins and some surgery,” Dempsey said of the passenger.
Hutchison said the man with the injured leg was taken to the REACH air ambulance base at Lampson Field, and from there flown to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.
The pilot refused to be transported by ambulance and was taken by private vehicle to Sutter Lakeside Hospital, Hutchison said. “He needed some stitches.”
As for the plane, “It was in rough shape,” said Dempsey, noting it was a beautiful aircraft.
Trimble said the plane was in about 8 feet of water, with the nose on the bottom. They had attached ropes to it during the initial rescue, and he didn't think it completely submerged, although the cabin filled up with water.
About an hour after the crash, Trimble went back to the crash area but didn't see any signs of the plane. He wasn't sure if by then it had been removed.
Both of the Air Force pilots have had training in CPR and first aid, which Dempsey said helped a lot in the Saturday incident.
Dempsey and Wahleithner are in the same flying squadron at Travis Air Force Base. They fly KC-10 air refueling tankers, which refuel fighter and bomber aircraft in flight to extend their range.
“It's not as exciting as it sounds,” Dempsey said.
Dempsey had attended last year's Splash In, driving up to Lake County because he was concerned about the flight conditions due to the area's wildland fires.
This year he wanted to fly up, arriving on Friday in his Lake Buccaneer seaplane with Wahleithner.
Paulich said the sheriff’s office is coordinating with Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board, which will be taking over the crash investigation.
Trimble attributed the incident to simple human error.
This is not the first plane crash on the lake to coincide with the Splash In.
In September 1990, a World War II-era Lockheed P2V Harpoon doing a series of low passes and maneuvers nose dived into the lake, killing all seven aboard.
Organizers of the 1990 Splash In said that the plane involved in the crash was not a part of the event but had intruded, according to media reports at the time.
Trimble said besides the 1990 incident, he doesn't remember any other crashes having taken place during the Splash In, which has been held in Lakeport since 1979.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
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