Grumman
Goose
Found
off Catalina Island, CA
1 Killed, 10 Hurt in Air Crash at
Catalina
Eight
in One Family Among Passengers
on Plane That Hits Water at Avalon
Los Angeles Times, April 15, 1979
By Dorothy Townsend and Nielson Himmel
Times Staff Writers
A
Catalina Airlines commuter plane crashed while attempting
to land in Avalon Harbor Saturday, killing one person and
injuring 10 others, eight of them members of one family.
Three of the injured, including the pilot, Richard Lord,
43, of Long Beach, were hospitalized.
The twin-engine Grumman Goose amphibian appeared to lose
power while banking left toward Pebbly Beach landing ramp
and its left pontoon hit the water, flipping it around,
witnesses said.
All but one of those aboard got off before the craft sank
in about 100 feet of water. That one, an 81-year-old woman,
"seemed to freeze" and went under with the wreckage, one
passenger told The Times. That woman was identified as Ruth
Gardner of Lomita.
"I looked back at her as the plane was going down and she
was just looking at the water," said George R. Putnam, who
had sat next to the woman on the flight from San Pedro
Saturday morning.
Putnam, a Beverly Hills construction company executive,
said he had helped her unstrap her seat belt after impact
and "told her to grab a seat (floatation cushion) and jump
out of the plane...The plane at that time was completely
open, she could have just stepped over."
Putnam said he turned his attention to two small girls and
swam with the smaller of them to a nearby fishing boat. He
returned for the other child but by that time "she was
dogpaddling in the water." He helped her and several others
into the boat.
"I kept shouting,'get the old lady, get the old lady,'" he
said. The plane sank in about five to 10 minutes after
hitting the water.
Putnam and William Michaelis of La Crescenta, who was
flying to the island for a days outing with his wife, four
daughters and his parents, said the plane broke open on
impact with the water.
"I saw the nose go down and I became quite concerned about
my wife who was sitting up front with the pilot," Michaelis
said. He started to make his way to the front of the plane
"when I saw the pilot's head pop up and then my wife."
Michaelis' wife, Robin, 34, was hospitalized in Avalon
Municipal Hospital with head and face lacerations. His
father, Willard Michaelis, 63, of Chicago, suffered a
broken arm and also was hospitalized there. Both were
expected to be released today.
Michaelis, his mother and four daughters were treated at
the hospital for bruises and cuts, as was Putnam.
Putnam said the flight has been "very pleasant" despite
foggy conditions but ended in a violent shower of
sheetmetal and debris when the craft plunged into the
water.
"From where I sat there wasn't any more ceiling, just open
sky," he said. "The emergency escape windows went out and
when they went, the roof came too. Pieces of sheetmetal hit
me in the face and back."
The plane "hit so hard my watch popped off my wrist,"
Putnam said, "and I was starting to put it back together
when I thought, 'What in the hell am I doing?' I started
unbuckling and helped her (the older woman next to him) and
then I reached for the little girls because I could hear
them crying."
Putnam said there was "shock but no panic" among the
passengers inside the plane,saying they had to get
"untangled" from the metal and debris before they could get
out of the craft.
While helping to get the girls into a fishing boat, he
said, he saw the pilot "hanging on the bow, completely
dazed. I yelled at him, 'Are you all right?' but he just
looked at me."
The pilot was pulled aboard the boat. After examination at
Avalon hospital, he was flown to Harbor General Hospital
for treatment of abdominal and chest injuries, then
transferred in stable condition to Kaiser Hospital,
Bellflower.
Also in the water near the fishing boat was Robin
Michaelis, bleeding profusely from head wounds. She was
also pulled aboard.
Michaelis said after the impact "everybody was scurrying to
release the seat belts. He had his youngest daughter,
Korrie, 2, on his lap and the elder Michaelis was holding
another daughter, Kate,5. The three oldest girls, Kate,
Kelly, 7, and Kimberley, 12, swam out to the boats in the
harbor as did his mother, Tillie Michaelis, he said.
"I'm very glad they knew how to swim," he said afterward.
The elder Michaelis, now retired, and his wife had visited
Santa Catalina years ago and wanted to revisit the island
so the trip was planned as a one-day outing for the entire
family.
An Avalon Harbor Department employee, Frankie Machado, said
he could hear the plane's engines and knew that it was in
trouble. "You can tell," he said, "so we started for it."
Two harbormaster craft were dispatched to pick up
survivors.
In June, 1977, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered
Catalina Airlines' Grumman Goose amphibians grounded when
inspectors said they discovered three of the planes
"unairworthy." The suspension was lifted after repairs were
made.
During the suspension, the airline was able to continue
service between the island and Los Angeles Harbor and Long
Beach Airport using large Sikorsky helicopters.
Last summer, one of the airline's copters crashed in San
Pedro Bay with three persons aboard, one of whom died later
of injuries.
The cause of Saturday's crash was not determined and The
Times was unable to reach a spokesman for the airline for
comment.
Capt. Ray Arntz at the helm of the SUNDIVER
First
Contact
in the
summer of 2000, while transiting the area along the front
side of Catalina Island, Ray noted a significant bottom
target on the sonar. On April 18, 2003 Ray put four divers
from PADI on the site for their graduation dive (PADI DSAT
Tech). The divers immediately identified the aircraft as a
Grumman Goose and also noted that it had a white, blue, and
red color scheme with the words "CATALINA AIRLINES" visible
on the side of the fuselage.
The wreck was likely one of two possible Grumman seaplanes
that crashed in the area in 1979. Both aircraft accidents
were reported in the Los Angeles Times. The first occurred
in April and was reported to be in a depth of 100 feet. The
second accident happened in September and according to the
article the plane sank in 250 feet of water. At first
glance the September accident seemed to be a perfect match
because the wreck is lying close to the reported 250 foot
depth. However, after discussing the wreck with Chris Bell
of Catalinagoose.com we
learned that the Grumman Goose that crashed in September
(N22932) was
salvaged and is currently flying with PenAir in Alaska.
The first divers on the wreck were Karl Shreeves, Steve
Mortell, Chris Robinson, and James Morgan. Karl asked Ray
to keep the site quiet for a year or so as he wanted to
investigate the possibility of doing a documentary on the
site. Unfortunately, nothing ever came of it.
On September 11, 2005 Ray put a second group of divers on
the site. The divers were Gina Castillo, Bill Reals, Roger
Bly, Mike Reedy and Mark Hall. Mark had a DPV failure and
returned to the vessel (he was the only one with a camera).
In the interest of conservation the divers were placed on a
rockpile a short distance from the site. They were given a
compass course and distance to the site in order to keep
any local boat traffic from finding the wreck. This
particular site may not have the historical significance of
other Southern California wrecks, but we make it a point
not to directly reveal a wreck's location. Despite Ray's
best efforts, a few of the divers that were taken to this
site in confidence have been spreading the word. This is
one reason why Ray is reluctant to run technical dive
charters to newly discovered wrecks. Unfortunately, it
doesn't take long for a few dive boats to destroy a fragile
wreck by anchoring directly over the site.
Wreck site of Grumman Goose N11CS off Catalina Island
Side scan sonar image recorded by Capt. Ray Arntz aboard
the SUNDIVER II
Catalina Airlines, N11CS, Los Angeles Harbor, 1978
Photo courtesy of Chris Bell
We would like to thank Chris Bell for his
enthusiastic support on this project.
Please visit his website at www.catalinagoose.com