Sean C. Morgan
A float plane capsized Tuesday afternoon, July 25, while traveling across Foster Lake at low speed pulling a girl on an inner tube.
No one was injured, and the plane was recovered from the lake.
The plane, a 1960 Champion piloted by John Andrew McKinney, 57, of Lebanon, set out on the surface of Foster Lake from Shea Point, traveling east to Calkins Park and then north toward Lewis Creek Park before heading back toward Shea Point, located at the city limits on the south side of Foster Lake. The plane was on the water for about an hour before it capsized.
Linn County Undersheriff Jim Yon said that McKinney had turned toward Shea Point to empty water out of the pontoons.
While en route, the girl fell into the water, and the plane circled around to pick her up.
During the turn, Yon said, one of the pontoons filled with water.
As a result the plane tilted forward.
“I started noticing (the water) started coming over the tip of the float, said passenger Cindy Marie Blondin, 57, who was celebrating her birthday.
Blondin’s granddaughter, Allie Blondin, 11, of Kodiak, Alaska, was riding the inner tube.
The plane tilted forward, the water caught the prop just enough to pull the plane forward, shutting down the engine.
McKinney and Blondin easily and safely exited the aircraft while it was still vertical, nose down in the water. They climbed up the back of the plane in an attempt to right it, but it continued flipping onto its back.
A nearby boater picked them up from the water and towed the capsized plane to Shea Point.
Langdon Construction responded to the scene and, assisted by McKinney, used a forklift to lift the plane, flip it upright and tow it onto the shore. Blondin said she and McKinney had cruised around on the surface of the lake previously, and their trip that day was a lot of fun.
“I haven’t had that much fun in – I can’t remember,” Blondin said. “We’ll be back. It’s in the shop already.”
Allie had a blast too, Blondin said. “She was grinning just as big as she could.”
The plane couldn’t move too quickly, Blondin said, because that would overheat the engine, but Allie kept urging them to go faster. She wanted them to flip her off her tube into the water.
The only time Allie was scared was when the plane was tipping over and she couldn’t see Blondin because a wing was in the way.
Outside of the damage to the plane, they weren’t worried much by the plane capsizing, Blondin said. It wasn’t dangerous, and no one was going to get hurt.
“Those speedboats are four times faster than we were going,” she said.
If the pontoon didn’t have a slow leak, the plane wouldn’t have capsized, she added.
Linn County Sheriff’s Office, Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District, Oregon Department of Forestry Sweet Home Unit and Sweet Home Police Department responded to the incident at about 3:20 p.m. Shea Point was closed during the recovery of the plane.
The Federal Aviation Administration is not responding to do an investigation because it considers the plane a boat when it is on the water, Yon said. The Oregon State Marine Board and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have been notified.
An investigation is continuing, he said.