LAKEPORT —It was business as usual, plane mechanic Chad Parlee thought, when he saw the gyrocopter operated by William “Bill” Jensen, going up and down the runway as it prepared to take off from Lampson Field Airport on the morning of Dec. 2, 2021. “Everything was routine,” Parlee said. Little did Parlee know that day would be the last time he would see the 68-year-old Hidden Valley resident in the single-seater that usually was kept in a hangar across from where he worked.
The white gyrocopter crashed into a marshy area of Clear Lake near South Lakeport shortly after 11 a.m. Witnesses contacted the Sheriff’s Dispatch to report hearing a loud noise and seeing an aircraft going down in the direction of the Konocti Vista Casino but they were unsure whether it hit land or water, according to Lake County Sheriff Brian Martin, the first on the scene. Emergency crews responded by airboat and by foot to access the crash site estimated at the time to be about a mile from the shoreline where thick tule reeds blocked the shallow water, said Lakeport Fire Protection District’s Capt. Jordan Mills. An hour after the accident was reported, emergency personnel found the aircraft operator dead at the scene and the gyrocopter totally destroyed, Martin said. Jensen’s body was recovered from the lake at 4:12 p.m. A volunteer firefighter for the LFPD, Pardee said he also got his boat out to try and help with the search but by then, Jensen’s body had been found.
The fatal crash was reported to both the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The FAA Registry identifies the 2019 rotorcraft as an experimental Vortex N425RD, a kit model from Sport Copter Inc. NTSB spokesperson Jennifer Gabris said NTSB is the lead investigative agency. “Once on scene, the investigator will begin the process of documenting the scene and examining the aircraft,” Gabris told the Record-Bee. “Part of the investigation will be to request radar data, weather information, air traffic control communication, aircraft maintenance records and the pilot’s medical records. NTSB will look at the human, machine and environment as the outline of the investigation.”
Gabris added that since the investigation is at an early stage, NTSB does not state a cause but will provide factual information when available. “Investigations involving fatalities and other major investigations currently take between 12 and 24 months to complete,” she said.
Reports indicate Jensen had previously been involved in an accident while operating an experimental two-seater Cavalon gyrocopter N635BC in August 2020. Jensen and his passenger sustained injuries when his gyrocopter fell through some trees to the ground, landing flat with the fuselage fully intact in Upper Lake, off Clover Valley Road and Bambi Lane.
The fatal crash on the lake has prompted questions about gyrocopters. The FAA refers to gyrocopters, autogyros or rotoplanes as gyroplanes and most are classified as light sport aircraft to be flown by licensed operators. The gyroplane is believed to have been invented in 1923 by Spanish engineer, Juan de la Cierva, as a means of flying safely at low speeds. While an engine powers a helicopter’s spinning rotor blades, an engine powers a gyroplane’s back propeller to move the aircraft forward. The forward motion causes air to pass through the rotor blades, which then lifts the aircraft. The way it works is much like a pinwheel which only needs air to rotate. The faster the blades spin, the more lift they create. For those who wonder what a gyroplane looks like, variations of such an aircraft have been used in feature films like the James Bond movie, “You Only Live Twice” and the Mad max movie, “Road Warriors.” In April 2015, a gyrocopter landed on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. The operator, Douglas Hughes, wanted to deliver 535 letters to the members of Congress protesting what he perceived as government corruption and dysfunction.
