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Midair Plane Crash Kills Two Young Pilots

September 13, 2005

National Transportation Safety Board investigators are reviewing radio traffic between the Renton airport tower and two planes that collided near Interstate 405 Thursday evening, killing two young Boeing workers.

The collision occurred at about 5:45 p.m. when one plane landed safely at a Renton airport, but the other crashed through the roof of a building on the Kennydale Elementary school campus.

The Cessna 152, smashed through the roof of Kennydale Elementary School, an empty two-story building that was closed for remodeling after the end of the school year in June.

Both men on board died. The plane completely pierced the roof of the school and came to rest inside the building.

The first aircraft, a float plane, made an emergency landing beside a runway at nearby Renton Municipal Airport.

All five people aboard scooted to safety after the deHavilland Beaver DHC-2 skipped across the grass for about 150 yards, bounced two or three times and skidded to a halt.

One of the victims, was a flight instructor, Kevin Dukes, 26, who was teaching a Boeing coworker, Jack Ho, how to fly the Cessna. The Subsonics Flight Club owns the Cessna which crashed.

Both pilots were talking with the Renton Airport control tower when the accident occurred. Apparently the air traffic area got congested, and the Cessna was flying west, directly into the sun at the time of the crash.

Federal crash investigators donned protective suits to head inside in the school because of asbestos, which was why the building was being torn down. With the Cessna 152 aircraft crashing through the roof, it made it an even more difficult investigation site by kicking up all that dangerous material inside.

There were also concerns about spilled fuel and the possibility parts of the school's roof and walls might cave in.