Whidbey pilot uninjured in Spokane crash

By Garrett Cabeza / The Spokesman-Review

A 58-year-old aviation author, airport owner and real estate businessman who released a documentary this week about his nearly nine-month polar circumnavigation and peace mission flight was uninjured when he crashed his plane, dubbed “Citizen of the World,” Monday afternoon at Felts Field in Spokane.

Robert DeLaurentis, of Whidbey Island, was flying from his airport, DeLaurentis International Airport, in Oak Harbor, Washington, to Felts Field when he tried to use the throttle on his modified 1983 Gulfstream Twin Commander 900 as he was preparing to land Monday. But the throttle didn’t work, which he blamed on frozen engines from the cold temperature and moisture.

“Then I could feel the plane sinking and I thought, ‘OK, we’re gonna hit,’ ” DeLaurentis said. “And you always have that moment where you’re wondering what the next few seconds hold for you and it’s totally out of your control, so you’re kind of along for the ride in some ways, you know?”

He said the plane, which he has flown to 23 countries, crashed on its belly short of the runway and slid across the grass for several hundred feet. DeLaurentis, the only person on board, said he tried to put the plane into “thrust reverse,” to stop the plane from sliding, but that didn’t work either.

https://www.heraldnet.com/news/whidbey-pilot-uninjured-in-spokane-crash/