UPDATE: Pilot, passenger walk away from plane crash near Brush Prairie

BRUSH PRAIRIE — A Portland pilot and his passenger walked away after he lost control of a 1964 Cessna 150 on Sunday afternoon, clipped a rabbit shelter and crashed near the home of Angela and Mark Congdon.

“We were a little high and I thought we’d do another go-round,” said Phil Allen, 75, the pilot. “Unfortunately, we lost directional control.”

Allen and his friend, Peny Van Abkoude, 64, also of Portland, were flying at 5:15 p.m. out of Scappoose, Ore., where the two-seater with a Lycoming 150-horse power engine is kept.

“I fly into this field a lot,” Allen said of the Brush Prairie Aerodrome, 12301 N.E. 144th St., which is just south of the 7 1/2 acres owned by the Congdons, who have three daughters. The family raises rabbits.

Mark Congdon said that as the plane skimmed the top of a rabbit shelter, it was just feet from hitting a 250-gallon propane tank that had been filled in the last two weeks. The home is at 12907 N.E. 144th St.

A neighbor on his way to help at the crash hopped onto the back of another neighbor’s pickup and fell out as the truck was moving. He was taken to PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center with head injuries. His name was not available but neighbors said he was to be released from the hospital Sunday night.

“We heard it. It sounded like a car crash,” said Jodi Wright, who was visiting neighbors. “There’s fuel leaking everywhere.”

Neighbor Sierra Kacani, 12, said the plane hit the top of the rabbit shelter and “then it crashed in the yard.”

Angela Congdon is a 4-H leader and has show rabbits.

“They’re pretty stressed,” she said of the many rabbits in their cages. None of the rabbits was hurt, Angela Congdon said.

Vancouver Fire, Fire District 3, Clark County sheriff’s deputies and AMR all responded.

“They’re very lucky; everybody walked away,” said Clark County Sheriff’s Sgt. Tony Barnes.

The pilot and passenger seemed calm about their misfortune.

“I’m sad about the plane,” Van Abkoude said.

“It was in very good condition,” Allen said of the Cessna, which he said was worth $30,000.

The plane was left at the crash spot Sunday night. Barnes told Angela Congdon that Federal Aviation Administration investigators would arrive today “at first light.”