80-year-old pilot escapes injury Wednesday after crashing into trees at Wakonda Beach airport

By GARRET JAROS/Lincoln Chronicle

WALDPORT – A South Beach man escaped injury Wednesday after his light plane crashed into the trees shortly after takeoff at Wakonda Beach State Airport south of Waldport.

Les Lacasse, 80, did not have enough altitude when he went past the mid-airfield flag and attempted to pull up too fast causing the aircraft to stall and veer into the trees on the east side of the grass airstrip, according to a witness.

The accident, which occurred at approximately 1:30 p.m., left Lacasse and his Hummel Ultracruiser lodged in the trees 50 feet above the ground until first responders using an extension ladder and ropes were able to extricate him just after 3 p.m.

First on the scene were responders from Pacific West Ambulance and the Seal Rock Fire District, who made contact with Lacasse while waiting for the Lincoln County Technical Rescue team to arrive. The rescue team had just pulled a man’s body from Devils Churn south of Yachats.

Crews from Central Oregon Coast Fire & Rescue, which had been covering Yachats while its firefighters responded to the Devils Churn drowning, converged on the scene along with crews from the Yachats Rural Fire Protection District and the Newport Fire Department.

Firefighters used chainsaws to carve a path through the dense foliage to reach the tree and then use the extension ladder – which fell short by 12 feet – and ropes to reach Lacasse. Responders determined that neither a fire ladder truck nor a utility bucket truck would be able to navigate the terrain and get to the plane.

A LifeFlight helicopter from Newport was called to stand by in case the plane shifted and crashed to the ground. The two-prop aluminum airplane, which sat rumpled with damaged wings in the trees, did not leak any fuel.

Lacasse was no worse for wear when he reached the ground and was checked by paramedics before being questioned by a Lincoln County Sheriff’s deputy.

His wife, Jan Lacasse, was notified of the crash and waited patiently behind police lines on the opposite side of the airfield. She said her husband was a lifelong pilot with 35 years of experience flying helicopters in the U.S. Marine Corps before working for commercial airlines on the East Coast.

“And we’ve owned twin engine and single engine airplanes,” she said. “He jokingly calls it a soft landing when he ends up in trees like this. He received a big write up in New Hampshire for saving all these kids on a playground. He let a fellow pilot fly and had fallen asleep when he suddenly woke with alarms going off in the plane and took over and got away from the kids and landed in the trees.”

That crash broke Lacasse’s legs.

Jan Lacasse said her husband purchased the Hummel six to eight months ago from a man in Indiana.

“He just wanted something to mess around with without having to get the FAA involved with it so he got this,” she said. “The guy who sold it to him … brought it in and screwed up the props, so he’s been working on that, got new props and has just been fixing it back up again.”

Lacasse said her husband flew the plane once before, but the tires were not right. Shortly after the crash Wednesday she heard from her husband that the plane had indeed stalled.

The eyewitness to the crash, who did not give his name has lived beside the airfield for 35 years and said he saw the airplane “which is a pretty popular little plane” end up in the creek at the south end of the runaway after a previous landing.

“This is a really small airport for that airplane because it’s so slick, there’s no drag,” the witness said. “So the first time he came in here he was just going too fast and couldn’t get it slowed down and ended up in the creek.”

Jan Lacasse said the owner from Indiana must have been piloting the airplane during that event because it was not her husband.

• Garret Jaros covers the communities of Yachats, Waldport, south Lincoln County and natural resources issues for Lincoln Chronicle and can be reached at [email protected]