CEDAR CITY — A Cedar City resident who piloted a small jet that crashed after landing in Oregon three months ago is now sharing his story.
In an exclusive hour-long interview with Cedar City News, Dean Englestead shared the details of the April 7 incident, which left him and the four passengers aboard with minor to serious injuries.
Early that morning, the plane took off from St. George Regional Airport and made the three-hour flight to Southwest Oregon Regional Airport in North Bend, Oregon.
Just after 6 a.m. local time, Englestead made his approach to Runway 5, just as he had done dozens of times over the previous year. Although the runway was wet with rain, that wasn't unusual, Englestead said, noting. "It always rains in Coos Bay."
"It was more of a crosswind, but maybe a 2-knot tailwind," he recalled. "I landed right where I always land, you know, maybe 1,000 feet or less down the runway," he said.
"Anyway, so I remember coming, going to the end of the runway, and I'm telling the guy in the right seat, 'Austin, we're going to go off the end,'" Englestead recalled, adding, "And I said, 'Get on here with me. Let's push on the brakes as hard as we can.' He was probably a 40-hour private student pilot at the time. We got on there, and it did not slow down any more. We were pushing on the brakes all the way, but it wouldn't slow down. And I said, 'We're going to go out the end.'"
