A preliminary report issued by the National Transportation Safety Board Friday morning doesn’t contain any new information on what investigators suspect caused Steve Appleton to crash a single-engine experimental plane at the Boise Airport last week.
The report has more details on what happened the morning of Feb. 3 but the story is basically the same — Appleton tried to take off with his single-engine kit-built Lancair IV P-T, landed quickly, and then took off a second time minutes later. He got about 100 to 200 feet in the air before the plane made a steep bank to the left, fell to the ground, and crashed between two runways at the airport.
The main portion of the wreckage — most of the engine, left wing, and fuselage — was found about 80 feet from where the plane first hit the ground.
NTSB officials say it could take up to a year for a final report on the crash to be finished. Investigators did a “complete airframe teardown examination” and have kept what remains of the engine, engine accessories, and three recording devices found in the wreckage for further investigation, officials said Friday.
Investigators have not been able to locate the pilot logs in the wreckage of Appleton’s plane or his hangar, so it is unclear how many times he flew the high-performance aircraft he acquired in late December.
But investigators with the NTSB have interviewed enough people to conclude that Appleton flew the plane at least three times since it arrived in Boise in late last year, said NTSB air safety investigator Zoe Keliher.
Maintenance records do not indicate Appleton or anyone else made any modifications to the plane after he got the single-engine kit-built Lancair IV P-T on Dec. 30 from a seller in Raleigh, N.C.
According to Federal Aviation Administration records, the plane is registered to Raleighwood Aviation LLC in North Carolina. Appleton’s family members told NTSB that Appleton bought the plane, and records show it was flown from Raleigh to Boise on Dec. 30.
Keliher said she was investigating FAA records to determine the current ownership. Several online classified ads identify the seller as McQueen Campbell, who did not return phone calls or emails from the Statesman.
Online for-sale listings show the 2007-built plane was offered for $459,900.
Appleton did not file a flight plan the morning of Feb. 3 because he was planning on staying in the “airport traffic pattern,” according to the NTSB report issued Friday.
NTSB investigators say Appleton first took the Lancair out of a hangar at Boise Airport and taxied onto a runway at 8:46 a.m. Feb. 3. He took off and got the plane about 5 to 10 feet above the ground before calling the tower with an unspecified problem and said he was “going to land here and stop.”
The tower asked if he needed assistance. “Negative,” Appleton said.
He took the plane back to the runway and took off for a second time at 8:54 a.m. Witnesses say the plane climbed to between 100 and 200 feet off the ground, abruptly banked to the left, appeared to stall and then rolled as it crashed to the ground in the dirt between runways less than two minutes later.
More than 400 people attended a private memorial service for Appleton Thursday at St. John’s Cathedral morning. A public memorial service is planned for 10 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 23, at Taco Bell Arena at Boise State University.
Appleton was appointed chairman, chief executive officer and president of Micron in 1994, though he dropped the president title in 2007.
Appleton was an enthusiastic aviator who owned a variety of aircraft and flew stunt planes and performed in airshows. The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association said Appleton had been a member since 1988 and held an airline transport pilot certificate; held commercial privileges for airplanes, single-engine land and multi-engine seaplanes; and held private pilot privileges for single-engine seaplanes. He held an authorization for the experimental Hunter Viperjet, the association said.
