Staff Writer

 The airplane crash that killed a pilot and his passenger last Saturday in South Portland could have been a much larger catastrophe.

“It could have been a lot worse,” said Deputy Fire Chief Miles Haskell. “We’re lucky.”

The plane crash happened in the middle of the afternoon near the busy intersection of Maine Mall Road, Jetport Plaza and Western Avenue, a five-lane street.

It occurred shortly after pilot Mark Haskell, 42, of Brunswick and Thomas Casagrande, 66, of Portland took off from Portland International Jetport in the single-engine Yak-52 airplane.

The crash of an A-26 invader bomber in 1944 occurred close to the site of Saturday’s crash in the Redbank neighborhood and claimed two crew members and 17 people on the ground.

Tim Frechette, a Biddeford photographer and one of Mark Haskell’s friends, is convinced Haskell’s plane suffered a malfunction and the pilot intentionally tried to avoid hitting bystanders.

“His evasive maneuver was done to help protect people on the ground. He was a very conscientious person. I have no doubt that a part of his plan was to make sure nobody else got hurt,” Frechette said.

Steve Pulos, a former pilot, agreed with Frechette. “It’s kind of obvious that he did everything he could to avoid a population area,” said Pulos.

Courtney Lowe of Portland was on break from her job at Dunkin’ Donuts on Western Avenue when she first saw the plane.

“I watched it take off. I noticed it was low but I didn’t think much of it. It swooped around from the interstate and came down near Darling Avenue,” Lowe said.

Shortly after Lowe returned to work a woman rushed inside and yelled a plane had crashed. Lowe called 911 but could not get through because the line was busy. She ran outside to help direct traffic away from the scene until police and fire personnel arrived.

The aircraft came to rest in front of the Staples parking lot with its tail up on the curb and its nose in the northbound travel lane of Western Avenue.

“A woman came tearing into my store screaming ‘call 911,’” said Tanar Stalker, who was working at the nearby Jetport Gas and Convenience Store.

Stalker, 22, of Portland, grabbed a fire extinguisher, ran to the plane and saw the victims’ bodies.

 Stalker said he was emotionally shaken by the experience.

“It’s an intense feeling knowing these guys were alive seconds before. It was a terrible, awful thing,” Stalker said.

The plane did not catch fire but it was smoking, spilling gas and badly damaged when bystanders and first responders rushed to the scene.

Debris from the plane was strewn across the width of Western Avenue to the Enterprise Rent-A-Car entrance on the opposite side of the street.

The plane’s propeller and right wing were shorn off, the cockpit was destroyed and the fuselage was dented and crumpled.

“I could tell that the plane had flipped. All the glass was broken out of the cockpit and the frame all around them was crushed,” Stalker said.

Deputy Fire Chief Haskell said 15 members of the fire department responded to the call with two fire engines, one ladder truck and one rescue unit.

Crews set up an air-conditioned command post in a trailer to provide some relief to firefighters battling 90-degree heat.

“We kept a good eye on our people rotating them in and out of the command post and made sure they were hydrated,” Haskell said.

The Portland Fire Department also sent help and the Portland Police Department sent Clarkson Woodward, a critical incident stress counselor.

Woodward was on hand to help fire and police personnel who might have been emotionally distraught after the crash.

South Portland Fire Chief Kevin Guimond said he and many people talked to Woodward.

“She was there during the whole event for us. She did a great job. It really helped,” Guimond said. “Obviously, we’ve seen a lot of sad things over the years. Everybody handles that type of stress differently.” 

Mark Haskell owned the Yak-52 aircraft and flew it many times in air shows, according to friends and co-workers. The planes were developed by the Russians in the 1970s and used for aerobatic competitions, said Paul Bradbury, airport director for the Portland Jetport.

Haskell was an experienced pilot who had worked as an air traffic controller at the Portland airport since 1991. He was piloting the plane Saturday and performing a flight review the Federal Aviation Administration requires for pilots to maintain a license.

“He’s been heavily involved in our air shows and a great guy. He was hugely interested in aviation,” said Bradbury, who had known Haskell since 1992.

Frechette said he was saddened when he learned of Haskell’s death from another friend Saturday night.

“He was the kind of person that could make you feel like you were the most important person in the room. He was always positive,” Frechette said.

Casagrande also was a pilot and a Vietnam War veteran. He was certifying Haskell’s review for the FAA.

Pulos, the director of Biddeford’s public access  television station, got to know Casagrande when he participated in several talk shows and shows about veterans that Pulos hosted.

“He was a very likeable guy. He loved flying and he was perfect for these shows,” Pulos said.

Casagrande liked to talk about his military experiences, air shows and his deep interest in P-51 Mustangs – fighter planes used in World War II, according to Pulos.

“I think it’s terrible,” said Pulos of Casagrande’s death. “I only worked with him a couple of times but it was obvious that he was a nice guy. It’s too bad.”

Butch Wilson of the National Transportation Safety Board confirmed Tuesday the emergency fuel source was turned off in the cockpit of the plane before it crashed in South Portland Saturday.

Wilson is lead investigator for the accident.

“We are not sure why yet but we do know (the pilot) did shut the fuel off prior to the accident,” Wilson said during a press conference Tuesday.

Wilson and other investigators discovered Haskell’s action after examining the aircraft’s frame.

The plane’s badly damaged engine was scheduled to be disassembled and evaluated Wednesday, Wilson said.

Wilson also reported most of the plane’s electrical circuit breakers had been turned off before the accident.

A pilot would take these actions because he was preparing for an emergency landing or because, “he had something else going on in the airplane where he needed to shut the fuel and the electronics off,” Wilson said.

Wilson said those actions reduce chances of a fire starting on impact.

Turning off the fuel would cause the engine to quit and stop the propeller from turning, Wilson said. Wilson said Monday the propeller was not turning when the plane hit the ground.

Wilson said he did not know if the pilot turned the fuel off first or if the engine stopped running first. He said it is common for pilots to take such actions if they are in danger of crashing.

“It is standard emergency procedure prior to a crash, a forced landing or anything that might end up in anything other than a normal landing,” Wilson said.

Tuesday’s inspection also revealed both canopies covering the plane’s two cockpits were open at the time of the crash. Wilson said it’s not clear if the two men in the plane chose to fly with the canopies open or if they opened the canopies to make it easier to escape from the plane after the crash.

Wilson said the pilot did everything that could be done to prepare for a crash landing.

“Whether or not that’s why he did them, I can’t answer that. Not at this point in time,” Wilson said.

A final report on the cause of the crash could take six months to a year, Wilson said.

A preliminary report could be posted online by July 23 at www.ntsb.gov, Wilson said.

The aircraft had reached an altitude of 300 feet before Haskell called the control tower and requested permission to return to the airport.

“The controller cleared the runways for him and said you’re cleared to land anywhere you want. And that was the end of it,” Wilson said.

The plane made a left turn, headed back to the runway and shortly thereafter went down at a steep angle, according to Bradbury.

The plane crashed less than one minute after Haskell’s last communication with the control tower, Wilson said.

The pilot did not issue a distress call to the tower, Wilson said.

The damaged plane is now in a hangar at the Portland airport where it will continue to be inspected by federal officials from the NTSB and the FAA.