Pilot Killed
EL CAJON – A single-engine plane crashed while landing at Gillespie Field
here Wednesday killing the pilot and seriously injuring a female passenger. The
crash happened about 2:30 p.m. when the Lancair 235, approaching runway 27R from
the east, clipped an airport security fence along Magnolia Avenue. The plane
nose-dived into the dirt just short of the runway and landed upside down, Polick
said.
The woman was taken to Sharp Memorial Hospital in Kearny Mesa; the pilot,
James Thompson, 67, of Anacortes, Wash., was airlifted to UCSD Medical Center in
Hillcrest, said Michael Scott, Division Chief with the El Cajon Fire Department.
Thompson was declared dead at the hospital about an hour after the crash, the
county Medical Examiner's Office said last night. The name of the woman and her
relationship to the pilot were not released.
The FAA said the plane was built in 1995 and is listed as "experimental,"
meaning it was not mass produced and comes in a kit. The owner then assembles
the two-seat plane or pays someone to do it. More than 1,870 Lancairs have been
sold since the first one was developed in 1984, according to the company's Web
site. FAA investigators were on the scene about one hour after the accident.
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Pleeeeeese, no low flat approaches!!!!!!!! 27R is 5341 feet.
