Firefighters extinguish a blaze caused when a small plane crashed into the California Highway Patrol weigh station off U.S. 101 near San Martin Wednesday evening. The pilot, Martin Schapiro of Palo Alto, was killed in the crash.
The man who died when his plane crashed into the California Highway Patrol weigh station has been postively identified as Martin Shapiro, 60, of Palo Alto.
Shapiro died trying to be safe.
After taking off from South County Airport Wednesday evening, the licensed pilot and retired IBM programmer decided to loop around and perform a practice landing before flying his single-engine plane back to Reid-Hillview Airport in San Jose. But something went wrong.
The plane veered off path as it flew over the Church Street bridge, crossed over rush-hour traffic along U.S. 101 and then slammed into the front of the California Highway Patrol weigh station on the freeway's northbound side shortly after 6 p.m. Within minutes, about 25 firefighters from Gilroy, Santa Clara County and Cal Fire extinguished the burning, mangled fuselage, the nose of which penetrated a hole in the building's 1-foot-thick concrete wall, shattering windows and cracking water pipes. The thick black smoke stained the facade before dissipating, and all that remained was a charred rudder flapping in the wind.
There were no other injuries because CHP officers spent Wednesday training, so the building was vacant when Shapiro's 1977 SOCATA Rallye crashed into the concrete structure, according to CHP Assistant Chief Troy Abney. The weigh station normally stays open 24 hours a day during the week, and about 12 people, ranging from employees to civilians, occupy the building during the day, according to CHP Spokesperson Chris Armstrong.
Officers returned Thursday to the smell of smoke and a team of about a dozen state and federal investigators surveying the crash scene. All that was left of the plane's registration number was the letter 'Z' and half of a blackened 'B,' but John Godwin's license plate bore the full alpha-numeric combination.
The 69-year-old flight instructor at San Jose's Reid-Hillview Airport owned a third of the plane along with Shapiro, of Palo Alto, and James Evans. The three registered the plane to Silicon Rallye, and Godwin watched from the San Martin airport's runway as his friend, "Marty," and their plane came down less than a quarter mile southeast of the tarmac.
"It was coming in steady as a rock, wings perfectly level on either side," Godwin said Wednesday night as media helicopters hovered above and dozens of firefighters and law enforcement officials whisked about.
"It was hard watching it (because) Marty gave new meaning to the phrase conservative pilot," Godwin added. "He would spend 45 minutes during pre-flight, inspecting stuff, when most guys spend about 10 minutes."
The Santa Clara County Coroner's Office declined to confirm Shapiro's identity until dental records positively link the name with the deceased, but Godwin said he knows it was Marty, his friend for more than 20 years, who died in the crash.
"I kept my eye on (the plane) the whole time specifically because I knew it was Marty," Godwin said Thursday.
About a dozen officials from CHP, CalFire and the Federal Aviation Administration surveyed the crash scene Thursday amid the lingering smell of smoke. All three agencies will investigate the crash, but FAA officials declined to comment on the cause of the incident, and damage estimates were unknown as of press time Thursday. Officials expect to re-open the station by today at the earliest, according to Armstrong, the CHP spokesperson, who added that roving patrols will help enforce weighing requirements for north-bound trucks in the area, he added.
About 20 yards away from the crash site, a shiny blue-and-gold panel from the plane - which was in South County for a paint touch-up, Godwin said - sat in a handicapped parking spot, serving as a twisted testament to Shapiro's time as an "angel pilot." In 1999, Shapiro joined Angel Flight West, a nonprofit organization that includes about 1,900 pilots across the 13 most western states who fly needy residents to and from far-away medical care for free. All angel pilots must meet FAA proficiency requirements, have a current medical certificate and maintain aircraft liability insurance, according to Angel Flight's Web site.
"Marty was a great guy, a nice, friendly, warm guy," Angel Flight West's Director of Mission Operations Cheri Cimmarrusti said Thursday from her office in Santa Monica. "It's been a while since I saw him … It's so sad."
The last aviation disaster near Gilroy occurred in December 2006, when a twin-engine plane plummeted into a sewage tank at the South County Regional Wastewater Authority in east Gilroy, killing its three passengers. Investigators struggled to find witnesses after that crash, but San Martin residents in the area of the CHP station saw and heard Wednesday night's fatal wreck.
Ricardo Lopez was riding his bike behind the weigh station when he saw the plane flying low as if it was going to make a landing.
"It looked like it was going to land," the Sycamore Avenue resident said. "It sounded like an explosion," he said of the loud crash he heard when the plane plowed into the building. "I was scared."
Lopez's neighbor, Leona Reif, was heading back to her home on Sycamore Avenue when she saw a plume of smoke rising from above the station. Worried that it was her house, which is situated directly behind the station on the other side of a sound wall, she stepped on the gas, she said.
"The smoke was so close to my house," she said. "It was a shock, all that black smoke. I didn't know where it was coming from."
Soon three media helicopters hovered over the scene, which reeked of diesel and burned plastic. Traffic was not blocked, but it had slowed to a crawl by 6:45 p.m. More than two dozen motorists were standing next to their parked cars on the Church Street overpass watching as emergency personnel worked the scene.
An hour later, just five engines were on scene. Most of the onlookers had left, and firefighters continued to cut open the roof and douse the smoldering guts of structure's roof.
Now all that's left to figure out is, why?
Reporter Sara Suddes contributed to this story.
Chris Bone Chris Bone covers Gilroy or South Valley Newspapers. Reach him at 847-7109 or e-mail him at cbone@gilroydispatch.com.
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