Witness heard two pilots 'yelling at each other' before fatal Marana crash, report says
"You cut me off," the witness recalled hearing one of the pilots say before one of the airplanes plunged into a ditch near a runway and caught fire, said a Marana police report on the incident released Wednesday to The Arizona Republic.
However, the pilot in the second plane, which landed safely, told police she said nothing on the radio just before the collision.
Two people died after the impact when one of the airplanes, a Lancair 360 MK II, hit the ground and caught fire. Michael Reinath, 70, the pilot, and 76-year-old Linda Gifford were later identified as the victims.
An instructor from a Chandler flight school, Katherine Roos, and a student were in the second plane, a Cessna 172S, which landed safely, according to the report.
The crash occurred on a morning in calm weather. Police who drove up to the wreckage at about 8:30 a.m. reported seeing a mangled and "fully engulfed" aircraft with several people near it attempting to use fire extinguishers.
Roos told police she and her student had been practicing "stop-and-go" maneuvers in which they would land, come to a complete stop, then hit full throttle to immediately take off again.
As they prepared to take off on one of the maneuvers, Roos told police, she heard the Lancair pilot on the radio say he would do a "go-route" and then noticed the airplane coming up behind the Cessna. She assumed it would veer off to one side, which would be the normal practice to ensure airplanes weren't in the same traffic pattern.
A "go-around" is an evasive maneuver a pilot may take to abort a landing. Two other witnesses heard a male voice on the radio say he would "go around," so it's possible the officer transcribed Roos' comment incorrectly.
Roos "attempted to radio the Lancair to see if the pilot had them in sight, but the radio traffic was busy, and she was not able to transmit and communicate with anyone," the report states.
Roos declined comment and hung up when contacted by The Republic for more details on Wednesday.
As the Lancair flew above them, the Cessna's propeller "clipped" the Lancair's tail, causing it to barrel roll into the ground. Roos estimated she was about 200 feet off the ground at the time.
Joseph Paris, an employee of Tucson Aero Service, told police he was working near a runway when he saw the airplanes close together, one doing a "low fly-by" and the other preparing for takeoff.
"They were chattering at each other, yelling at each other, about 'you cut me off,'" the police narrative states.
Paris didn't immediately return a phone message on Wednesday.
Two other witnesses who heard the radio traffic reported only that they heard a male voice say he would abort his landing and go around again, then a female voice screaming "Mayday!"
One of those two witnesses, Erwin Castillo, a flight instructor who was in the air that morning, told The Republic in February that the Lancair pilot sounded "pretty upset," which he thought was odd.
Five seconds later, he heard screaming over the radio followed by reports that a plane went down.
Contacted again Wednesday, Castillo said he didn't recall any bickering or yelling: The woman said she would perform the stop-and-go, and then came the comment from the man.
Castillo believes the problem could have been something like "air rage."
"He's in a fast plane and he's trying to land," Castillo said. "Maybe he's trying to prove a point."
The Marana airport has no control tower but plans to finish building one by 2029.
At uncontrolled airports, pilots are expected to maintain a safe distance from other aircraft and announce their position regularly over the radio on a common frequency.
Castillo told The Republic he believed the Cessna had the right of way. Under the law, the Lancair "had priority, if landing, but you're not supposed to force the person to get off the runway."
The Cessna instructor's company, AeroGuard Flight Training Center in Deer Valley, referred The Republic to its public relations firm, which released the following statement: "AeroGuard is working closely with the NTSB, local authorities, and safety officials in the ongoing investigation regarding the tragic accident that occurred last month. We cannot provide any further information."
The National Transportation Safety Board plans to release a preliminary report on the collision soon.
Reach the reporter at rstern@arizonarepublic.com or 480-276-3237. Follow him on X @raystern.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Report: Witness heard pilot say 'you cut me off' in Marana fatal crash
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