The pilot of a single-engine plane died after crashing near Buchanan Field Airport in Concord on Tuesday morning, according to local fire and federal aviation officials.
The fatal crash of the Van’s RV-6 aircraft was reported around 10:30 a.m. in the area of Concord Avenue and Diamond Boulevard, just south of the airport and the adjacent Skylinks at Buchanan Fields Golf Course.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson Steven Kulm said the pilot was the lone person aboard the plane and that the crash investigation will be led by the National Transportation Safety Board along with the FAA.
Concord police said Concord Avenue was closed between state Highway 242 and Meridian Park Boulevard as of midday Tuesday, while Diamond Boulevard was closed between Burnett and Concord avenues.
The golf course near the plane crash remained open, according to an employee who answered the phone at the pro shop.
Thanks to Lorena Gomez for the photo.
It was fatal.
Pilot was killed. RIP to the fellow aviator..
Sad for pilot. But a miracle nobody on ground was killed or injured. That is a heavily congested area.
My father in law crashed his plane many years ago. On Treat Blvd did not survive.
Here’s the flight track for N30AK
https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/N30AK#flightPageActivityLog
The pilot died
I heard one person was killed 🙏🏻
Don’t know if on the plane or on the ground
1 person reported dead (sole person in plane), 1 person injured in vehicle that plane crashed into (unknown condition). Road is closed in both directions.
Kind of scary I drive on that road at least once a week.
Concord DMV right down the street – this corner is part of our routes for drive tests…. go by it – 10-15
Injured party in vehicle suffered minor injuries but was transported to hospital.
Another online news site showed a photo before the pilot’s body had been removed , only covered by a yellow tarp and halfway outside the plane.
This Claycord photo that Lorena Gomez took is much more appropriate & respectful.
I wonder what happened? This is off the line of the runway. Stalled and rolled right? Lost power on takeoff and rolled left?
RIP, and condolences to the family.
Looks like lost power on take off of 19L and rolled left based on flight aware. Another pilot reported hearing the mayday. Sounds like he was doing touch and goes like he often does.
Well concord grew around this airport not the other way around. All planes require a very strict annual inspection witch requires them to be in flying order and takes into account the air frame hrs not years. Sorry you are not a fan, next time you see a car along side of the road on fire or a tire fell off and it flipped and killed someone then you may value the inspections these things undergo, “everything breaks down”. Both my children did the “kids fly free” as well as went to Oshkosh courtesy of these people “both in college now” please show some respect as it seems this gentleman died.
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Rest in peace to the pilot. Now it’s time to investigate why this airport always has some kind of accidents near it far too often.
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There are waaaay more car accidents everyday. Should we get rid of cars? Take away the driving privileges of the people involved in accidents? Reduce the speed limit to 20 mph? What about trains? Boats? Quads? Bikes? Maybe people should just stay home from now on. That would prevent alot of accidents too.
This airport does NOT “always” have these accidents, Oreooh! You don’t know what your talking about.
RIP, prayers for the family, so sad
Time to relocate airport out to old bunker site, how many more accidents have to happen and lives at stake.
RIP, prayers to the family.
Time to consider relocating this airport.
They aren’t going to move the airport. Do you know how expensive that would be?
Zero chance of that happening as Buchannan is a designated relief airport included in FEMA action plans.
Is that an unusually small plane? Seems small. Maybe it’s just the photo. And the damage.
The Van’s RV-6 is a small, 2 seat, light aircraft. At just over 20′ long and 5′ tall It is a small even compared to most small planes.
RIP to the pilot. It is my understanding he was an experienced pilot and a great man. So sad. I hope the injured person (initial news reported leg injury) makes a full recovery.
This man was a good pilot and was often up doing touch and goes. Most of his landings were short field and emergency landing practice. He probably met his end trying to avoid others on the ground. May God rest his soul.
I’m often on the bike trail, near the airport. Over the past few years, I remember seeing this plane doing touch’n’go landings, and many times I’d stop to watch…….very impressive. Respect to the pilot. RIP.
Too early to blame anyone but this happens way to often here in Concord. Look it up….
There have been 5 or 6 crashes in the past 40 years. I’d say that’s pretty infrequent.
The worst of the crashes was at, Sun Valley Mall, in 1985. The other crashes/crash landings, either resulted in, injuries to people on the ground, injury or death to the pilots, or no injuries to anyone. People on 4 wheels, more frequently, have done worse things to others, so that being said, I think the airport is relatively safe, in comparison.
May be time to revisit, moving the Airport to the Space available at the Former Naval site… Might be
Costly in the near term.. But make sense in the next decades… Now is a unique time period as the Naval site is developed.. Will NOT come again..The space freed up would likely have significant value..
Perhaps not.
That space is not suitable for an airport it’s closer to the hills than the current airport plus they want to build homes and open space there you can’t just put an airport on any blank swath of land. The location of the current airport is perfectly fine where it is.
A sad day, RIP.
The Vans RV-6 uses an NACA 23013.5 airfoil, which was developed around 1935 by NACA (which became NASA in 1958). The 230xx series is a high performance airfoil with low cruise drag and is a very widely used airfoil. Just a few of the aircraft that use it are the Vought F-4U Corsair, the Beechcraft Bonanza, most models of the Cessna Citation 500-560 business jet, the Douglas DC-6 and DC-7 piston engine airliners and many others. One unfavorable characteristic is a relatively sharp stall when the critical angle of attack is exceeded. Based on the photo and the small debris field, it appears that the aircraft hit in a near vertical attitude, which often happens in the “classic” stall-spin accident at low altitude. Of course the NTSB will have a lot more information and provide the probable cause of the accident.
Does anyone know who the pilot was? May he RIP, my prayers go out to his family
Was just out that way, looks like they still have not cleaned it up, area was blocked. They don’t say what time of day this happened, loads of cars and golfers usually out.
Ad of 3pm, I cannot turn to Concord Ave from Contra costa. Wtf you guys doing? Counting the ants?
You are clueless. The reason aircraft accidents are thoroughly investigated is to understand what happened to try to prevent it from happening in the future. This is a non-trivial process.
They should do this a little more with car accidents. Make sure those also don’t happen so often.
The take away OREOOH is not only are you supposed to be patient with someone who for apparently amusement purposes only, splashes their aircraft all over a busy intersection, miraculously only killing themselves, but also patient while they try and figure out this mystery. You got this… 😉
Yes, they were “counting the ants”, it’s an investigation, and you have to be thorough. An airplane fell out of the sky, pilots don’t usually get a chance to tell their side of the story, so the investigators have to figure out what happened, based on the wreckage, and eyewitness accounts. That takes time!!!!!!
According to FlightAware, it appears that he was doing practice approaches. We will all take that final flight west. RIP.