More detail on this person: Ted Gaston
This information was last updated 05/18/2016
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Date posted on this site:
03/10/2024
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Larry attended your reunion this last July. Please
disseminate this amongst your members. You may
include my e-mail address for response. Ted
Gaston
Story:
http://www.nwcn.com/statenews/washington/stories
/NW_072803WABpilotcrashSW.d317b671.html
Pilot from Wash. killed in crash at S.D.
airport
07/28/2003 Associated Press
ABERDEEN, S.D. - The pilot of a single-engine
plane who died in a crash was identified Monday as
Lawrence Andrew Olson, 58, of Olympia, Wash.
The plane he was flying had just taken off when
crashed into a parking lot at the Aberdeen airport
Sunday, destroying an several vehicles on the
ground. Olson was killed instantly, Brown County
Coroner Kevin Spitzer said. He was the only one
on board the plane. Initial reports indicated the
plane was headed to Oshkosh, Wis., the site of an
airplane convention that starts this week, and had
been refueled in Aberdeen. Aberdeen
Transportation Director Dave Osborn said the plane
was registered as an experimental aircraft. The
Federal Aviation Administration planned to begin
its investigation Monday.
Shortly after taking off, the pilot radioed the
airport that he was experiencing trouble and was
trying to make it back to the runway, Osborn said.
The crash happened around 4:10 p.m., sending
thick, black smoke into the sky. Rebekah
Swanson, of Roslyn, S.D., was north of the airport
as the plane flew overhead. "The plane was
circling in the air before it plummeted," she
said. "Then it hit the ground and burst into
flames." "It was just huge," she said of the
blast. "Just boom." Heat from the fire was so
intense that tires on vehicles in the parking lot
exploded. Osborn said all vehicles will have to
remain in the parking lot while the FAA conducts
its initial investigation.