La Center, Washington, Plane Crash: 2 Dead As Homemade Aircraft Goes Down

Two people were killed after a homebuilt aircraft crashed into a marshy area near La Center, Washington, on Monday.

According to Clark County Sheriff’s Office, a pilot of another aircraft spotted the downed plane at 4:11 p.m. local time (7:11 p.m. EDT) south of the East Fork Lewis River, a 95-mile-long tributary that flows through southwestern Washington. The aircraft was described by the National Transportation Safety Board as a Vans RV-6 – a single-engine plane, with two seats and a home-built propeller.

The Clark County Fire and Rescue personnel, along with the sheriff’s office deputies, found the plane in a pond about two-feet deep. Inside the aircraft were the bodies of two adults – the pilot and a passenger of the plane. The victims appeared to have died on impact. None of their identities were revealed by the authorities.

“The aircraft contained the bodies of the deceased pilot and a deceased passenger, both adult males that appeared to have perished on impact,” the deputies wrote in a news release.

The cause of the crash, which occurred near Daybreak Airport, Washington, about 20 miles north of downtown Vancouver, Canada, was under investigation. Sheriff’s Sgt. Fred Nieman said the plane was registered in Clark County.

The Federal Aviation Administration will take over the investigation into the incident. More details will be available after the FAA begin their investigation.