BENTONVILLE -- The charred wreckage of a small aircraft outside a hangar at Bentonville Municipal Airport was all that remained of a plane that crashed during an aborted takeoff Wednesday morning, killing the pilot.
Police identified the pilot as Rex Grimsley, 70, of Bentonville.
The crash was reported at 9:30 a.m.
Lt. Gene Page of the Bentonville Police Department said the Federal Aviation Administration will conduct an investigation into the cause of the crash. Two FAA investigators were at the scene about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. They declined to comment and referred questions to an FAA spokesman.
Brandon Nolker of Bella Vista, an aircraft maintenance technician, said he was working at the airport Wednesday morning and spoke with Grimsley just minutes before the crash. Nolker works in a hangar just south of the crash site.
"I was standing right beside him 10 minutes before the crash," Nolker said. "He came into the hangar to talk about getting some maintenance done on his aircraft. There was nothing wrong with it. It just needed some scheduled maintenance."
Nolker said Grimsley then left, and a few minutes later Nolker and his co-workers heard an engine being "powered up."
Shortly after that, "a guy I work with yelled, 'Look out!' and then we heard the crash and saw the smoke," Nolker said. "We went outside and could see he hit the hangar just above the door." Also, he said, there was a "hole in the side where the engine went through."
The front of the hangar was scarred, and there were several gashes in a metal door. Two large holes were visible above the door, and the front of the building was damaged by smoke and fire.
For several yards around the remnants of the airplane, the tarmac was blackened by flames. The plane's engine had gone through the hangar, punching a hole in the south wall before ending up against the north wall of the adjacent hangar. The wreckage of the plane rested in front of the damaged hangar.
Page said there was no damage to other aircraft, and no other injuries were reported.
Later Wednesday, a row of aircraft remained parked on the taxiway just north of the hangar where the crash occurred.
Joey Standley works near the airport at Northwest Arkansas Winwater, a utility contractor on Southeast 28th Street in Bentonville. He said he and others were outside when the crash occurred.
"We just saw a big explosion," Standley said. "We saw the black smoke and called 911."
The plane Grimsley was flying was a 1983 Beechcraft Bonanza. The aircraft crashed into the hangar at 2410 S.W. Aviation St., Page said. Grimsley was the only person aboard the six-seat aircraft, Page said.
Joe Featherston of Bentonville said he and Grimsley grew up together and served at the same time on the Bentonville School Board.
"I thought a lot of him," Featherston said.
He described Grimsley as good businessman and a very outgoing person. "He always had the best interest of the community in his heart," Featherston said. "That was his strong point."
In 2013, the FAA added Grimsley to its Airmen Certification Database, which recognizes certified pilots who have met or exceeded the educational, licensing and medical standards set by the FAA.
The standards were created to help "reduce pilot errors that lead to fatal crashes," the 2013 announcement of that certification states.
Traffic was halted for a time Wednesday on S.W. Aviation Street. Authorities had closed the road shortly after the crash. The street reopened about 12:30 p.m., and cars drove slowly past the plane wreckage.
One woman in a passenger seat of a sport utility vehicle held her hand over her mouth in disbelief as the driver turned around after pausing to look between the two hangers. Another woman got out of her car to take photos on her cellphone. A few pedestrians also stopped to look.
The airport reopened to flights about 1:30 p.m.
According to the recently updated airport master plan, the Bentonville airport had more than 27,000 landings and departures in 2014. It has 13 hangars that house about 70 aircraft, and there are two hangars under construction, according to Ben Peters, city engineer and airport manager.
The Airport Advisory Board has a meeting scheduled for 1 p.m. today.
City officials couldn't recall any other fatal plane crash in the municipal airport's history.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with [Rex's] family, with his wife and children," Mayor Bob McCaslin said. "This is unfortunate and tragic and so sad."
State Desk on 09/01/2016