By: Marshall Ramsey II
Investigators are working to determine the cause of a plane crash Monday near Lake Tahoe that killed a Palo Alto man and injured his wife.
Steven Lefton, 67, of Palo Alto, California, was killed when his 1963 Mooney M20C crashed shortly after takeoff late Monday morning from the Lake Tahoe Airport on the California/Nevada border. His wife, Karen Lefton, was also on board the aircraft. She sustained moderate injuries.
According to www.news10.net, law enforcement officials said fuel leaked from the planes ruptured wings. This seems to indicate that the ruptured wings was the cause of the crash.
Witnesses say that the plane began to lose altitude shortly after takeoff. After takeoff, the plane banked sharply into a wooded area east of the airport. then crashed into large pine trees and flipped over.
This contradicts what Lt. Pete Van Arnum of the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office had to say. "Several witnesses at the airport saw it take off and start banking and lose altitude," he said. "It had difficulty getting lift."
A question now arises. If the plane took off okay but then began to lose altitude after takeoff, as witnesses say, why then is Lt. Van Arnum saying the plane had problems getting lift to begin with? What caused the plane to lose altitude? Was it the ruptured wings? Only the mention of ruptured wings is given earlier, not that a fuel leak from the ruptured wings cam in contact with the engine and started a fire. Also, there is no mention of a fire, only that firefighters responded to the accident.
Something else that points to mechanical failure of some kind is the experience of Mr. Lefton. According to his daughter, she said he was a "very experienced pilot. He had over 20 years of flying experience."
Video footage of the wreckage, which can be seen at www.news10.net, shows that there were no burn marks on the plane.
Beth Frisby, a nurse with CalStar, an emergency response service, said in an interview that she talked with the victim's wife, Karen Lefton, for a few minutes letting her know what was going to happen once the emergency personnel arrived, that they were going to cut open the plane to rescue her. However, another account says she provided medical aid until emergency crews arrived. There was no mention in the video interview of her performing medical aid to Mrs. Lefton, and Mr. Lefton was unable to be reached.
Something else is worthy of note here. There appears to be an attempt on the part of Lt. Van Arnum to divert attention away from the plane's ruptured wings. How did the wings become ruptured? They could not have been ruptured when Mr. Lefton took off from the airport or he would have noticed. The rupture happened while he was in the air.
Conflicting accounts of the accident scene are curious. In one news article(1), Mrs. Lefton is pinned inside the wreckage. In another account(2), she is trapped under the wreckage, with only her head and upper torso visible. Only one can be accurate, so which one is it?
Also, Lt. Van Arnum seems to put particular emphasis on Mr. Lefton's seeming inability to get the plane to a proper altitude. "They (the Mooney M20C) are fairly powerful and in the summertime, with the high-density altitude, it's hard to get lift," he said, adding that it was 90 degrees Monday. "It could have been a factor." Whle Mr. Lefton's age and health certainly could have been factors, there is no mention of them in a credible manner, and the testimony of his daughter seems to dissuade one from thinking that Mr. Lefton was less than healthy. Perhaps Lt. Van Arnum wishes to cast doubt as to the condition of Mr. Lefton's health so as to hide something.
Other evidence available suggests that the murder of Mr. Lefton was occultic in nature, certain patterns
(1) http://www.news10.net/rss/article/251596/2/Lake-Tahoe-plane-crash-under-investigation
(2) http://www.sacbee.com/2013/07/23/5587495/plane-crashes-on-lake-tahoe-takeoff.html
Investigators are working to determine the cause of a plane crash Monday near Lake Tahoe that killed a Palo Alto man and injured his wife.
Steven Lefton, 67, of Palo Alto, California, was killed when his 1963 Mooney M20C crashed shortly after takeoff late Monday morning from the Lake Tahoe Airport on the California/Nevada border. His wife, Karen Lefton, was also on board the aircraft. She sustained moderate injuries.
According to www.news10.net, law enforcement officials said fuel leaked from the planes ruptured wings. This seems to indicate that the ruptured wings was the cause of the crash.
Witnesses say that the plane began to lose altitude shortly after takeoff. After takeoff, the plane banked sharply into a wooded area east of the airport. then crashed into large pine trees and flipped over.
This contradicts what Lt. Pete Van Arnum of the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office had to say. "Several witnesses at the airport saw it take off and start banking and lose altitude," he said. "It had difficulty getting lift."
A question now arises. If the plane took off okay but then began to lose altitude after takeoff, as witnesses say, why then is Lt. Van Arnum saying the plane had problems getting lift to begin with? What caused the plane to lose altitude? Was it the ruptured wings? Only the mention of ruptured wings is given earlier, not that a fuel leak from the ruptured wings cam in contact with the engine and started a fire. Also, there is no mention of a fire, only that firefighters responded to the accident.
Something else that points to mechanical failure of some kind is the experience of Mr. Lefton. According to his daughter, she said he was a "very experienced pilot. He had over 20 years of flying experience."
Video footage of the wreckage, which can be seen at www.news10.net, shows that there were no burn marks on the plane.
Beth Frisby, a nurse with CalStar, an emergency response service, said in an interview that she talked with the victim's wife, Karen Lefton, for a few minutes letting her know what was going to happen once the emergency personnel arrived, that they were going to cut open the plane to rescue her. However, another account says she provided medical aid until emergency crews arrived. There was no mention in the video interview of her performing medical aid to Mrs. Lefton, and Mr. Lefton was unable to be reached.
Something else is worthy of note here. There appears to be an attempt on the part of Lt. Van Arnum to divert attention away from the plane's ruptured wings. How did the wings become ruptured? They could not have been ruptured when Mr. Lefton took off from the airport or he would have noticed. The rupture happened while he was in the air.
Conflicting accounts of the accident scene are curious. In one news article(1), Mrs. Lefton is pinned inside the wreckage. In another account(2), she is trapped under the wreckage, with only her head and upper torso visible. Only one can be accurate, so which one is it?
Also, Lt. Van Arnum seems to put particular emphasis on Mr. Lefton's seeming inability to get the plane to a proper altitude. "They (the Mooney M20C) are fairly powerful and in the summertime, with the high-density altitude, it's hard to get lift," he said, adding that it was 90 degrees Monday. "It could have been a factor." Whle Mr. Lefton's age and health certainly could have been factors, there is no mention of them in a credible manner, and the testimony of his daughter seems to dissuade one from thinking that Mr. Lefton was less than healthy. Perhaps Lt. Van Arnum wishes to cast doubt as to the condition of Mr. Lefton's health so as to hide something.
Other evidence available suggests that the murder of Mr. Lefton was occultic in nature, certain patterns
(1) http://www.news10.net/rss/article/251596/2/Lake-Tahoe-plane-crash-under-investigation
(2) http://www.sacbee.com/2013/07/23/5587495/plane-crashes-on-lake-tahoe-takeoff.html
The man Steve, who died, is my family member of mine. His wife told my family that it was a normal takeoff that went wrong. He threw himself over his wife to try and protect her when he knew they were going to crash, using his own life to protect hers.
ReplyDeleteI am truly sorry to hear that. I was looking through some news articles and I found a few things that didn't add up. I certainly do not accuse his wife. I just question some of the 'witnesses' and the official stories. In South Carolina, I have evidence linking a well-known Charleston County police officer to a murder/'cover-up, details of which were published in a local paper. Plenty of 'credible' information, but they contradicted themselves and I caught it. Mr. Lefton sounds like a very brave and honorable man. You and your family have my condolences.
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