JACKSON TOWNSHIP — Records show it didn’t take long for law enforcement to locate a crashed plane in the muddy woods just outside of Polk.
But it might take longer to remove the debris, and even longer to know what led to the death of the plane’s pilot, Gary Wolfelt.
The National Transportation Safety Board was scheduled to arrive in Ashland County on Tuesday to initiate an investigation into a single-engine plane crash that left its pilot dead.
Wolfelt, of West Lafayette, Ind., 72, was the sole person aboard the Express 2000 FT, a single-engine plane. He was pronounced deceased at the scene.
The Federal Aviation Administration will handle the aircraft part of the investigation. Representatives from the agency arrived in Ashland on Tuesday morning, according to Kurt Schneider, the Ashland County Sheriff.
Schneider said the plane went down in a densely wooded area.
“And it’s very wet and muddy back there.”
The crash scene itself cannot be seen along Township Road 902 or along County Road 800.
“It’s about three-fourths of a mile off the road, through a swamp in the field,” said Brandon Mosher, fire chief of the Polk Jackson Perry Fire District. “It’s very wet.”
‘We just watched a plane go down’
Nevertheless, both citizens and law enforcement officers from various agencies located the plane within an hour of the first 911 call.
The sheriff’s office received the emergency call at 7:40 p.m., records show.
The caller, Malinda Myer, told the dispatcher that she had just “watched a plane go down.”
“We heard a kaboom,” she said. “I was trying to figure out what was going on with that plane and I come out and look and watched it come straight down to the ground.”
Myer wasn’t sure where it went down. She said there was too much rain to see much, and her property is surrounded by trees. She guessed it went down in the Polk or Sullivan area.
“It haven’t came back up or anything,” she said.
Another caller, one located along County Road 800, said she heard the crash and reported seeing smoke.
“It might be from our woods,” she said.
Schneider said the outpouring of support the agency received in locating the plane was “overwhelming.”
There were township trustees, first responders and other officials outside searching the area on ATVs and UTVs. Even some Amish residents came out to look, he said.
By 8:40 p.m., an hour after the initial call, officers located the plane. Authorities were on the scene by 8:45 p.m. Three minutes later, officers confirmed the fatality and contacted the coroner’s office.
Jenny Taylor, an Ashland County Coroner investigator, said the office did not order an autopsy because the cause of death had already been determined: blunt force trauma.
She said the FAA or NTSB will ultimately decide on whether to order a toxicology report.
Erratic flight pattern
It’s unclear what caused the crash.
The plane is registered to FFF LLC, a business owned by Wolfelt, FAA records show. Media reports have quoted Wolfelt’s family saying the plane was “homemade.”
FAA records show the plane was manufactured by FFF LLC in 2017.
His family has also been reported saying he was in Cleveland visiting relatives. Wolfelt had made the flight from Delphi Municipal Airport on April 27, according to ADSB Exchange, a website that tracks flights.
Wolfelt’s plane departed from Cleveland on May 5, about an hour before the crash, around 6:30 p.m. At the time, the National Weather Service in Cleveland reported overcast conditions with 10 miles of visibility.
By 7:30 p.m. the NWS in Wooster reported a “thunderstorm in vicinity” with light rain, fog and mist. The visibility was cut in half, at five miles.
As he approached West Salem from the east, the flight path changed.
For 15 minutes, Wolfelt’s flight pattern appeared erratic. Data from ADSB Exchange recorded Wolfelt’s altitude at approximately 3,000 feet.
The plane, and Wolfelt, came to a final rest in a wooded area just north of Township Road 902, about two minutes from the Village of Polk.
NTSB investigation
Keith Holloway, an NTSB spokesperson, said the agency is in the “very early” stage of its investigation.
“An NTSB investigator was on scene (Tuesday) documenting the scene, examining the aircraft. The aircraft will then be recovered and taken to a secure facility for further evaluation within the next day or so,” Holloway said.
The agency will investigate three primary areas: the pilot, the aircraft and the operating environment.
As such, the team will gather the following information and records, according to Holloway:
- recordings of any air traffic control communications.
- radar data (flight track data).
- weather reports, weather forecasts and actual weather and lighting conditions around the time of the crash.
- 72-hour background of the pilot to determine if there were any issues that could have affected the pilot’s ability to safely operate the flight.
- witness statements.
- electronic devices that could contain information relevant to the investigation, and any available surviellance video, including from doorbell cameras.
- aircraft maintenance records.
- pilot’s license, ratings and recency of flight experience.
“It is important to note that NTSB does not determine cause during the on-scene phase of the investigative process or speculate about the cause of the accident. This is considered the fact gathering phase of the investigation,” he said.
The NTSB will publish a preliminary report within 30 days of the crash. That report will contain information gathered during the initial phase of the probe.
But a final report — with a probable cause of the crash along with any other contributing factors — won’t be published for another 12 to 24 months, Holloway said.
The FAA is the country’s regulatory agency for aviation and will serve as a party member to NTSB’s investigation.
The aviation administration’s website states the FAA’s role includes “scene investigation, data analysis, interviews and regulatory compliance checks.”