SPOKANE, Wash. — It's certainly not the way any pilot wants to finish a flight, but Monday's crash landing at Felts Field was, for pilot Robert DeLaurentis, an emotional end to a long journey.
The 15-year aviation veteran says he was flying into Spokane to visit friends.
"I was about 100 feet off the ground when the engines stopped producing horsepower and I thought, 'I'm gonna go down now,'" DeLaurentis said.
DeLaurentis was flying in from his own airport on Whidbey Island to celebrate the completion of a documentary about an adventure he started five years ago.
In November 2019 he began a global circumnavigation from North to South Pole.
"Certainly the science is maybe the most powerful part of that trip. We detected there are microplastics in the air above the poles, in fact more than what's above the equators," he said.
He was flying the same craft, "Citizen of the World" into Felts Field when trouble hit a quarter mile from the runway.
"And I heard a loud popping sound on both sides and then a big vibration," he said. "I believe that was probably icing."
Though the plane had flown into the most remote, frozen points of the planet, DeLaurentis believes moisture and frigid air temperatures seized the twin engines. The highly-customized Commander 900 touched down, level, at 115 miles an hour.
"And it was bouncing, you know?" he said. "Not a lot but like you're on a rough road. I thought this is the point the wings are going to rip off, we're going to lose the engines or there's going to be an electrical or fuel fire. But what can you do? You're along for the ride."
The NTSB is now investigating the crash.
The Citizen of the World is believed to be a total loss.
"You know, we're sad we've lost her but it's more a celebration of life because what that plane has accomplished is in the record books," DeLaurentis said.
He's grateful he walked away unhurt, which he credits to a plane that brought him to the ends of the earth gracefully ending their final flight.
"You're thankful to be alive," he said. "One of the guys from the fire department said, 'Rough landing,' and I said, 'Well, any landing you walk away from is a good one.' We're saying she delivered me home one last time."