Accident At Sunriver Airstrip

Plane Crash Near Bend Kills Calif. CEO


By Joseph Friedrichs, 7-16-08

One of the busiest private airport facilities west of the Mississippi River was the site of a fatal plane crash Wednesday afternoon.

Douglas J. Sharratt, 50, the top official of a California high-tech company died when his small aircraft crashed and exploded into a ball of flames when he attempted to land at the Sunriver Resort’s airstrip, located fewer than 30 miles from Bend.

Because the airstrip is surrounded by walking and biking paths, as well as numerous homes, at least several people witnessed the crash and follow-up explosion. 

Apparently Sharratt had trouble with the landing, as one woman who captured the incident by photograph reports. Images show the plane’s right wing impacting the ground and ultimately sending the machine out of control.



Like this story? Get more! Sign up for our free newsletters.

Read more Bend stories
Advertisement

Comments

Be the first to comment on this article. Please complete the form below.

Name

Email

Your Comment

Comment policy:

NewWest.Net encourages robust and lively, but civil participation from our readers. By posting here, you agree to the NewWest.Net terms of service. You agree to keep your comments on topic, respectful and free of gratuitous profanity. Contributions that engage in personal attacks, racism, sexism, bigotry, hatred or are otherwise patently offensive will be subject to removal.

Other than using a filter that scans for comment spam, we do not moderate contributions before they are posted and we do not review every thread, so we ask that you help us in keeping the discussions civil and appropriate. Please email info@newwest.net to notify us of comments that may violate these guidelines. Thanks for your help and cooperation. Click here for some tips on how to best interact on NewWest.Net.

Remember my name and email address.

Notify me of follow-up comments.