Pilot at fault in fatal Yerington crash

A fatal November 1998 aircraft collision that killed three men near the Yerington Airport has been attributed to pilot error, according to the final report of the National Transportation Safety Board.

A Yerington flight instructor, an Alaskan glider pilot and instructor who was taking a powered aircraft flying lesson, and a retired airline pilot from Washoe Valley died Nov. 12, 1998, when two Cessnas collided at 10:43 a.m., shortly after both took off from the airport.

One plane crashed between houses on Main Street, while the other crashed into an unoccupied home a few blocks away on Sandy Avenue. No one on the ground was injured in the crashes.

According to the undated NTSB report, the probable cause of the accident was the failure of David Dunbar Sr. of Washoe Valley to see and avoid the airplane ahead of him, which was piloted by Yerington flight service owner Ric Sorensen and also carried student pilot Stephen Nathanson of Alaska.

Another factor in the collision was the failure of both pilots to announce their intentions on the Common Traffic Advisory Frequency, a radio channel available for pilots to voluntarily announce their intentions regarding movements near the airport, the report said.

The report did not cite any mechanical failures as contributing to the collision. Toxicology reports from autopsies of the three victims showed that Sorenson had a normal therapeutic level of cold or allergy medications.

Sorenson owned and operated Sorensen Enterprises, which included a flight service, an aviation electronics repair shop and the Hangar Cafe, a popular restaurant at the airport.

Dunbar had told his wife that morning he was going to fly to Yerington to have breakfast at the Hangar Cafe and to practice touch-and-go landings, something he did occasionally. Dunbar had been a pilot for United Airlines for 37 years, had owned his own air transport service before that and was a member of the Carson City Sheriff's Aero Squadron at the time of the accident. He had lived in Washoe Valley for 25 years and hangared his tail-dragger Cessna at the Carson City Airport.

The NTSB cited two eyewitness reports in reconstructing the collision. One eyewitness was in a third small plane, which took off shortly after the two Cessnas. The other witness saw the collision from the ground.

According to the report, Dunbar's faster plane overtook Sorenson's, coming up from the inside as both aircraft were executing turns to the left. The propeller of Dunbar's plan contacted the tail assembly and left landing gear of Sorenson's, disintegrating the tail assembly, according to the report. Both planes then crashed.

Sorenson's businesses closed after the accident, Neil Weaver, owner of Weaver Aircraft in Carson City, said Saturday.

"The last time I was over there, there was a big 'For Sale' sign hanging on it," Weaver said.

Weaver said Yerington, like most Nevada airports including Carson City's, has no control tower regulating landings and takeoffs. Pilots must rely on their own vigilance to assure their safety.

"The primary safety rule is to see and know where the other aircraft are," Weaver said.

Nathanson, who was both a commercial glider pilot and glider instructor, lived on an unnamed island near Homer, Alaska and was also a commercial fisherman. He has lived in Wellington, south of Yerington, part-time for four years while he took flying lessons for powered aircraft.