It was shortly after 1 p.m. last Thursday, a sunny afternoon and
otherwise ordinary day. Nic Turner was driving south down Herring Creek
Road toward the right fork, heading back to his job as a lifeguard on
South Beach, when he first spotted the Cessna Skyhawk making its final
approach at the Katama Airfield.

David D. Willey, the Cape Air pilot who died in a plane crash in the woods of West Tisbury Friday night, was remembered by family, friends and colleagues yesterday as an expert pilot, an avid learner and a family man with a wry sense of humor. He was 61.

“He was a great pilot, an exemplary human being,” Cape Air founder, chief executive officer and fellow pilot Daniel Wolf said yesterday. “This was a special person and it’s a huge loss for the company. It’s a devastating thing for the family.”

A detailed preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board draws no conclusions on what caused the Cape Air crash which killed pilot Capt. David Willey, a resident of Vineyard Haven, on Sept. 26.

But the full report, according to Luke Schiada, chief investigator of the crash for the NTSB which has involved local, state and federal authorities, may take six to eight months to complete.

“It is important to note we are still in the information gathering stage. There is a lot of data we are still waiting to get,” he said.

Four people escaped serious injury when a helicopter crashed into the sea off Lake Tashmoo about 2:30 p.m. Sunday.

Police said engine failure was the cause of the crash.

Several private fishing and pleasure boats were on the scene, about 1,000 yards off Tashmoo, within minutes and threw life jackets to the passengers clinging to the upturned chopper.

The occupants were then able to swim the short distance to the boats. It is believed three boats ferried them to shore. All were checked at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital and quickly released.

A Cape Air flight bound from Boston to the Vineyard on Saturday evening was forced to make an emergency landing at the Barnstable Municipal Airport when the landing gear malfunctioned.

None of the seven people on board the twin-engine Cessna 402 were injured.

The pilot, John Call, 32, of Marshfield, was on approach to the Vineyard airport around 7:15 p.m. when a warning light indicated the landing gear in the nose was malfunctioning, Martha’s Vineyard Airport manager Sean Flynn said.

A single-engine Cessna headed towards the Vineyard from New Hampshire crash-landed in a cranberry bog near Buzzards Bay on Sunday after the plane experienced engine problems and the pilot attempted an emergency landing. Although the plane was seriously damaged, all four people on board escaped without serious injuries.

The long investigation into the cause of the September 2008 plane crash which took the life of Cape Air pilot and Vineyard Haven resident David D. Willey is over, its findings summarized in two words: “spatial disorientation.”

Two Vineyard residents were treated for minor injuries after their plane crash-landed between the bridges on Joseph Sylvia State Beach on Saturday night.

Jean Dupon, 67, and Susan King, 45, both of Edgartown, were treated and released from Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, state police trooper David Parent confirmed.

The single-engine Piper aircraft was pointed out to sea, propeller blades slightly bent, no undercarriage evident, with obvious damage under the fuselage but otherwise remarkably intact on state beach on Sunday.

When the engine on Jean Dupon’s light plane died on approach to Martha’s Vineyard Airport on Saturday night, he had two things going for him: almost 30 years’ experience as a pilot and the biggest full moon in 20 years.

Mr. Dupon, 67, of Edgartown, did exactly what he should have under the circumstances, said fellow pilot and Martha’s Vineyard Airport manager Sean Flynn. He pointed the plane towards State Beach.

Cessna Aircraft Company began its defense this week in a civil trial over the 2005 crash of one of its airplanes at Katama, calling witnesses who defended the plane’s seat-locking system, raised questions about the pilot’s actions, and disputed future medical costs and lost income the pilot and passengers could incur.