Shelter Cove Airport. | Photo via Shelter Cove Resort Improvement District.

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PREVIOUSLY

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The cause of last month’s fatal plane crash off the coast of Shelter Cove remains a mystery following today’s release of a preliminary investigation report by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). 

According to the report, 48-year-old Santa Rosa resident and student pilot Brian Mariette and a passenger flew into Shelter Cove for lunch on Aug. 17 and had just taken off on their return flight to Santa Rosa when their Cessna 140 hit turbulence, rapidly lost altitude and crashed into the Pacific, seriously injuring both men, according to a preliminary investigation report released today by the National Transportation Safety Board.

The wreckage remains unrecovered, the report says.

A witness told investigators that after taking off from the remote cliffside airstrip, the plane made a steep, climbing right turn over the ocean before disappearing into the low coastal fog. The passenger, who has not been publicly identified, relayed to investigators that they’d departed to the south, into the wind, and intended to circle back over the runway to gain altitude. 

After entering the fog, however, the passenger looked down and saw the ocean “closer than expected,” the report says. “Shortly after entering the fog, he described the feeling of turbulence and stated the airplane was ‘violently pushed down’” before hitting the water, according to the report.

The witness who’d watched the plane take off heard sirens and someone in the water calling for help.

According to the NTSB report, the passenger did not remember exiting the airplane after the impact. Shelter Cove Fire personnel responded to the scene and found the men in the water, according to the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office. Both men were recovered and brought to shore, but the pilot was pronounced dead at the scene. The Humboldt County Coroner’s Office later determined that he had drowned.

You can download and read the full report via the link below.

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DOCUMENT

Approximate location of the crash, according to the report.