JACKSON TOWNSHIP — Federal investigators and crewmen slogged into the evening hours Wednesday as they attempted to remove debris from a crash that happened two days prior near Polk in northern Ashland County.
Midwest Air Recovery, a company specializing in extracting debris from aircraft crashes based in Carbondale, Ill., arrived to the scene along Township Road 302 at 3:45 p.m.
The removal of debris came two days following a plane crash that left Gary Wolfelt, of Indiana, dead. Wolfelt, the pilot and owner of the plane, was the aircraft’s sole passenger.
A crew of two brought a long trailer bed and a 5,000-pound track vehicle with a boom-extender arm, resembling a small crane. Three hours after arriving, the vehicle hauled one of several loads of the debris.
The first load contained the single-engine plane’s motor and dash area. A worker from Midwest Air Recovery, covered in mud, said the motor had been “buried in the ground five feet.”
Men working on the removal and investigation trod through the muddy farm field about 1,000 yards before reaching the crash scene, which lay just inside the woods.
Inside the woods, the wreckage sprayed around a wide perimeter, which authorities had cordoned off with yellow tape.
Earlier in the day, Todd Gunther — the investigator in charge for the National Traffic Safety Board — said during a press briefing that the plane had nose-dived into the wooded area.
By 8:15 p.m., investigators had requested lights from the Polk Jackson Perry Volunteer Fire Station. The track machine had stopped working as it carried the second load, witnesses from the scene reported.
It’s unclear when the agency will complete the plane’s removal. Gunther said the wreckage will be transported to another secure site so the NTSB can continue its investigation.
Meanwhile, Dave Nickles — the man who owns the property on which the crash occurred — fumed.
“No one talked to me about using my property to access this plane crash,” he said.
Nickles said law enforcement asked for his contact information the night of the incident, but he hadn’t been contacted since then. He said all the information he received had been from media reports.
Nickles and his wife own two adjacent parcels of farmland. Both parcels contain farmland on the southern portion and wooded land on the north. The eastern-most northern portion of the land is where the plane crashed.
Nickles and his wife farm the land — growing corn, soybeans and hay, he said.
Earlier in the day, around noon, Nickles expressed his frustration to Gunther and two Ashland County Sheriff deputies. Authorities said that Wolfelt’s plane had been uninsured — leaving Nickles with limited options to seek compensation for damage to his property.
Gunther, however, assured Nickles that investigators would do what they could to minimize further damage to his property.
“These ruts in my land are going to turn to concrete (when the mud dries),” Nickles said, also expressing concern about the investigation’s disruption in production of the farm.
More clues about the crash
Investigators from the NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration — three in total — worked earlier in the day to determine preliminary details of the crash.
Gunther said investigators will not know the probable cause of the crash for another year or two, but said the plane’s nose crashed into the ground after hitting “only one tree limb” as it spiraled.
Donald Wester, of West Salem, said he heard the plane on Monday night. He said he heard the plane flying “around and around” five or six times just north of his house. It sounded loud, making him think the plane was flying low.
Wester said he couldn’t see the plane, because of the storms that night and the fact his house is surrounded by trees. He did not call 911 because he assumed the pilot was a storm chaser.
Another witness, Nicholas Burns, said he saw the plane flying low just north of Congress.
The plane’s flight path appeared erratic moments before the crash.
Gunther said the wreckage didn’t show any evidence of “in-flight structural failure, fire or explosion.” Gunther also said there was no evidence of a fire after the crash, but noted the plane did have fuel in the tank and the scene featured a strong odor of fuel.
“Both fuel tank caps are in place,” he said. “Which indicates that the tanks may have ruptured on impact.
He noted the plane’s emergency locator transmitter had not been used. The ELT is a battery-powered device that transmits a distress signal. It can be automatically activated or manually activated by survivors.
“No ELT was received by any ground station or by satellite,” Gunther said.
Moving forward, investigators will look into weather conditions, the plane’s onboard systems, and air traffic control data. They will also investigate the pilot’s records, including maintenance records of the aircraft.
The plane, licensed under the administration’s “experimental” category, was homemade, Gunther said. He noted the category is a “vibrant, active segment of the aviation industry.”
The NTSB will also look at the pilot’s medical certification and physical condition at the time of the flight, Gunther said.
The agency will produce a preliminary report within 30 days and a factual report will follow in up to 18 months. After that, the NTSB will publish a final report, which will initiate a 60- to 90-day deadline for the five-member safety board to issue a “statement of probable cause,” Gunther said.
Gallery & video from the scene
@sourcemediaprops Scenes from the cleanup of a plane crash in Polk, #Ohio ♬ the fog slowly dissipates – nowt