Shortly before 5 p.m. last Friday, a small plane crashed into a house between Covington and Maple Valley. The pilot was killed.<\/p>\n
The King County medical examiner hadn\u2019t released the pilot\u2019s name Monday morning because authorities hadn\u2019t positively identified him.<\/p>\n
The house, where resident Rosemary Devoni had just settled in to watch the 5 o\u2019clock news on television, is a few blocks south of the intersection of Covington-Lake Sawyer Road and 180th Avenue Southeast. The location is about two miles southeast of downtown Covington.<\/p>\n
Firefighters from King County Fire District 44, also known as Mountain View Fire Department, which covers Black Diamond and unincorporated areas south of Covington and Maple Valley, arrived at the scene within minutes of the crash, according to Kent Fire Department spokesman Kyle Ohashi, who handled requests for information on Mountain View Fire\u2019s behalf.<\/p>\n
He said Devoni, reportedly 81 years old, wasn\u2019t injured.<\/p>\n
The plane, which had taken off from nearby Crest Airpark, was \u201cengulfed in flames\u201d when firefighters arrived, Ohashi said. He reported the plane hit the roof of the home, which is just northeast of the airpark\u2019s runway, \u201cdemolishing one exterior wall before coming to rest in the front yard. Because of the quick response by firefighters, the fire was confined to the plane and didn\u2019t reach the residence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crest\u2019s air strip runs almost parallel to 180th Avenue Southeast, the street Devoni\u2019s home is on in the 30400 block, and it appears that the plane lost power shortly after takeoff before veering off toward the line of homes on acreage off 180th just blocks away, according to reports. The pilot was the only person aboard.<\/p>\n
Over the weekend, the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration began an investigation into the cause of the crash. Kristi Dunks, an investigator for NTSB based out of the agency\u2019s Western Region Seattle office, said Monday morning that they are just beginning the investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe FAA responded to the accident scene on Friday evening,\u201d Dunks said. \u201cAt this point, we\u2019re in the fact-finding stage. We\u2019re trying to locate pilot and aircraft records, and we\u2019ll be examining the wreckage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dunks said she expects the investigation to take anywhere from six to nine months, and investigators also plan to conduct interviews with family and friends of the pilot, as well as staff members at Crest Airpark.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll be issuing a preliminary report within five business days of the accident, so likely by the end of this week,\u201d Dunks said. \u201cThat will be available on our Web site.\u201d<\/p>\n
Staff at Crest Airpark declined to disclose the pilot\u2019s destination before the crash.<\/p>\n
Friends and relatives, including her daughter, Nikki Devoni, showed up at Rosemary Devoni\u2019s home Saturday morning to help clean up. The wreckage of the plane was gone by 10:30 a.m. By late Saturday afternoon, the yellow police tape was gone and only a pair of local TV crew trucks remained.<\/p>\n
A swath of plywood boarded up the home where the garage once stood, covering up a hole about the size of a garage door. For a while Saturday, furniture in an apparent living room could still be seen through a gaping opening where the plane hit the house.<\/p>\n
Crest Airpark, according to its Web site, is a family-owned and operated facility that rents out a fleet of about a dozen different types of small aircraft. Crest also offers flight instruction.<\/p>\n
This is the second plane to take off from Crest Airpark in the past six months to crash before arriving at its destination. Thomas Maxwell, 78, of Black Diamond was found dead on Dec. 13 last year in the wreckage of his Piper Dakota after it disappeared from radar on Dec. 6. He was flying from Crest to Thun Field in Puyallup.<\/p>\n
Staff writer Kris Hill can be reached at (425) 432-1209, ext. 5054, or by e-mail at khill@reporternewspapers.com<\/p>\n
Staff photographer Charles Cortes contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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