Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2002 2:37 PM
Subject: FW: Tim Johnson Article - Seattle Times



> From: "Mikael Via" <mbvia@sprintmail.com>
>
> Here is the text of the article:
>
> Plane in Saturday's crash was kit model on test run
>
> By Christopher Schwarzen
> Times Snohomish County bureau
>
> The plane that crashed and killed two men north of Arlington on Saturday
was
> a home-kit, amphibious model being test-flown by a Marysville pilot for
> Federal Aviation Administration certification, investigators said
yesterday.
>
>
> Tim Johnson, 65, was test-flying the single-engine plane for Fred Caron,
63,
> of Cave Junction, Ore., before it crashed about 30 minutes into their
> flight, said Steve McCreary, the lead crash investigator for the National
> Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) Seattle office. Both men were killed.
>
> Although it will be weeks before the accident's cause is known, McCreary
> said the two men took off from Paine Field in Everett, and then possibly
> landed at Arlington Airport before taking off again.
>
> The accident occurred about seven miles north of the Arlington Airport.
> Witnesses on Saturday said it sounded as if the engine had cut out before
> the Seawind plane began to nosedive. Although witnesses said it appeared
as
> if Johnson was doing acrobatics with the plane, Mike Crowell, a flight
> instructor for Mission Aviation Training Academy, of which Johnson was a
> board member, said it likely was only Johnson trying to regain control of
> the plane because of a mechanical problem.
>
> "He was too precise, too cautious and didn't do stunts," Crowell said.
> "People like Fred Caron came to Tim to test their planes for those exact
> reasons."
>
> Although the Snohomish County Medical Examiner's Office was not expected
to
> release the identities of the victims until today, the NTSB yesterday
> confirmed their names.
>
> Johnson was a longtime missionary to indigenous tribes in South America,
> said his wife, Bonita Johnson. Even when he wasn't helping spread the word
> of God in the Brazilian jungles, he still was helping others.
>
> "He had that serving thing all about him," Bonita Johnson said yesterday.
> "He always wanted to fix things."
>
> Johnson began flying during the 1960s for the Jungle Aviation and Radio
> Service, the flying arm of the Wycliffe Bible Translators. A story on his
> missionary flying was featured in the November issue of the Aircraft
Owners
> and Pilots Association's trade magazine.
>
> Sent to Peru and Brazil to fly translators and others, such as National
> Geographic photographers, into the jungles of Xingu National Park, Johnson
> became an ace at short runways and treacherous flying conditions.
>
> "He was a crack missionary bush pilot," said Kirkland resident Mary
Hemmons,
> who knew the Johnsons while working as a missionary in Brasília, Brazil.
"He
> eventually returned to the States to work on a plane that would serve
> missionaries better in Latin America and other countries."
>
> Johnson, who logged more than 9,000 flying hours, never gave up his
> missionary work, Bonita Johnson said. Although eventually he worked as a
> consultant and test-pilot for Stoddard-Hamilton Aircraft, Johnson also
> served as pastor of Vineyard Christian Fellowship Church of Bellevue.
>
> "He always knew the dangers of flying, and we often talked about it,"
Bonita
> Johnson said. "But when you love someone, you relinquish them into God's
> care and hope he'll take care of them."
>
> Bonita Johnson, who was married to Johnson for 44 years, visited the crash
> site with her children yesterday, returning only with his shoe, found
buried
> among the remaining debris.
>
> "I took it, even though there was little left of it," she said. "The thing
> is, I never could remember whether he wore a size 12 or 13, and now it
means
> so much to me."
>
> Caron, who had owned other planes, built the Seawind model during the past
> 10 years. Caron was introduced to Johnson as someone who could test-fly
the
> plane by a mutual friend.
>
> Caron, who was married to his wife, Lorraine, for 11 years, had two
> children. Both are grown and married.
>
> Christopher Schwarzen: 425-745-7811 or cschwarzen@seattletimes.com.
>
> Copyright © 2002 The Seattle Times Company