Don’t expect finality anytime soon to the investigation of the
recent airplane crash near Hollister.
Don’t expect finality anytime soon to the investigation of the recent airplane crash near Hollister.
That’s because such investigations usually take a couple of years, noted Hollister airport director, Mike Chambless.
The second crash in eight months involving aircraft taking off from the Hollister Municipal Airport occurred on Thanksgiving morning.
Chambless pointed out how the Federal Aviation Administration is “doing their thing” and that the agency has moved the wreckage of the single-engine Mooney airplane to a Sacramento facility.
Australian Benjamin Glattstein, 28, was killed after taking off from the Hollister airport shortly after 6 a.m. on the holiday and crashing west of Highway 25, according to authorities. Glattstein was the lone person in the single-engine aircraft headed for Australia to stand up in a wedding, with a planned stop in Hawaii. He was dead when firefighters arrived at the scene, and there was no fire.
“They usually take about two years,” Chambless said of the investigations. “I think we’re getting about halfway on the first one.”
He was referring to the first airplane crash that occurred in March, when a man survived after crash-landing in a field next to the airport.
The site of the Thanksgiving crash was about two miles west of Highway 25 and Shore Road, said a sheriff’s office spokesman. A passerby witnessed the plane as it crashed nose first into the ground, according to authorities. The witness reported he or she had thought the plane was doing acrobatic maneuvering before crashing.
Glattstein, an experienced pilot, had been flying the single-engine Mooney. The Sydney Morning Herald noted how he had been flying home to be the best man at a friend’s wedding at the Great Synagogue this week, while also planning to spend time with family and friends for the holidays. The newspaper, which interviewed his father, also pointed out how he left Australia in 2003 to attend the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida, “where he became a pilot, flying instructor and enthusiast for aeronautical acrobatics.”
