The sorrow that has enveloped the Hillsboro community in the wake of a tragic aircraft crash has now been given context. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has put forth a final report on the 2023 Newberg plane crash, a devastating incident which claimed the lives of a student pilot and a flight instructor and left another passenger critically injured. According to KGW, the NTSB states that there were no mechanical failures, but instead, it appears human actions have to bear the weight of this tragedy.
The crash involved a small aircraft from Hillsboro Aero Academy which impacted a residence in Newberg. Aboard the plane were 20-year-old Barrett Bevacqua and 22-year-old Michele Cavallotti, both affiliated with the Hillsboro institution. Cavallotti, serving as mentor and instructor to Bevacqua, was to help usher him into the fraternity of the skies. The NTSB suggests that it was in this teaching relationship where fatal missteps were to quickly unfold. In a statement obtained by KPIC, "training error" was mentioned as a contributing factor to the accident.
Emily Hurd, another Hillsboro resident, was also on the plane and suffered critical injuries from the crash. Miraculously, no one on the ground was harmed despite the proximity of the crash to a home. Details from KPTV highlight the NTSB's use of the term "inadequate supervision" to describe the nature of the oversight from Cavallotti, whose responsibility it was to guide Bevacqua.
