Saturday Morning News

Police Investigate Death of Woman in Plane Accident

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: That's something they don't teach you in pilot school. Police in California still not sure whether it was an accident or a suicide that led to the death of a woman who plunged to her death from a plane.

We get more on the story from CNN's Rusty Dornin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There was a routine charter flight for five Hewlett-Packard employees who boarded this DeHaviland twin Otter aircraft in Sacramento Wednesday afternoon. One woman boarded last and sat in the rear of the plane.

It's a short flight to San Jose, a commuter flight. After takeoff, the pilot noticed the emergency door light was on so the plane made an unscheduled landing here, at Executive Airport, about 10 miles south of Sacramento. The door was fixed, the plane took off again.

Then about three minutes after it resumed the flight, passengers heard a whooshing sound.

ANDREW BLACK, FBI: The male passenger seated directly in front of the female passenger turned around and observed that the female passenger was now halfway outside of the plane. He made a very valiant effort and took extraordinary measures in an attempt to rescue her. He lunged over his own seat, grabbed a hold of her shoulder and arm while she was partially outside of the plane and attempted to pull her back in.

Unfortunately, due to the wind, the motion of the plane and his position in attempting to rescue her, he was unsuccessful.

DORNIN (on camera): Apparently it was so loud inside the aircraft the distraught passengers said they couldn't explain to the pilot or co-pilot what had happened. It was 45 minutes after the plane had landed in San Jose that someone made the 911 call to report the woman missing.

(voice-over): Within hours of the Sacramento Sheriff's Department launching aerial and ground searches, residents in a neighborhood three miles south of the airport discovered the body of a woman in a community garden. LT. SAM SOMERS, SACRAMENTO COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: They had found a female white who appeared to be dead and called the Sacramento Police Department, at which point police units and also fire units were dispatched to the area out here to check on the body. At which point because of the similarities in the body that they located and that of the person who was, who had departed the plane, we came out here as follow-up.

DORNIN: The woman was a purchasing agent for Hewlett-Packard. No strange behavior was noticed on the plane. No foul play is suspected. The unanswered question -- did the woman commit suicide or did the door malfunction?

Rusty Dornin, CNN, Sacramento, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: As for the identity of the passenger, police say she was Elizabeth Otto (ph). She had recently arrived in the United States. Coworkers and friends describe her as despondent. Two passengers saw her plunge from the plane. The incident was reported to police in a 911 call from an aircraft mechanic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED 911 OPERATOR: MSA please?

RON VAN MEERE (ph): F.M., this is Ron Van Meere with Hewlett- Packard's aviation department.

UNIDENTIFIED 911 OPERATOR: Uh-huh?

VAN MEERE: I have to -- I don't know how to do this or who to really report this to but we lost a passenger in flight of our scheduled flight from Lincoln, California to San Jose.

UNIDENTIFIED 911 OPERATOR: You lost a passenger?

VAN MEERE: They fell out of the airplane.

UNIDENTIFIED 911 OPERATOR: They what?

VAN MEERE: Fell, well, they either, they fell out of the airplane.

UNIDENTIFIED 911 OPERATOR: Are you being funny?

VAN MEERE: No, ma'am. No. I'm dead serious, OK? I mean I'm just, you know, you can check what we -- but I'm one of the aircraft mechanics that work here and I don't want to say it was suicide because I can't assume that, but we did lose a passenger in flight and I'm real...

UNIDENTIFIED 911 OPERATOR: How did they get out of the airplane?

VAN MEERE: OK, there's emergency exits and she went out one of the emergency doors.

UNIDENTIFIED 911 OPERATOR: Where are you calling from now?

VAN MEERE: OK, the hangar here at 1210 Aviation Avenue. I know we have airport security, but there's -- I can't find one of their phone numbers so I started with 911. But I figured we've got to get something going.

UNIDENTIFIED 911 OPERATOR: Where did this happen?

VAN MEERE: It would have been out of Sacramento Executive Airport probably about two or three minutes into the flight.

UNIDENTIFIED 911 OPERATOR: Which left Sacramento when?

VAN MEERE: I'd have to get with one of the pilots. That would be shortly after 5:30. The aircraft arrived here at, just before, a little bit after six and...

UNIDENTIFIED 911 OPERATOR: And this was a private plane?

VAN MEERE: It's a company owned airplane. It's a corporate aircraft.

UNIDENTIFIED 911 OPERATOR: And it landed at five after six?

VAN MEERE: Yeah, approximately six of course, five after six.

UNIDENTIFIED 911 OPERATOR: And one of the passengers that was originally on it is no longer on it?

VAN MEERE: Yes, ma'am.

UNIDENTIFIED 911 OPERATOR: How many passengers were on it?

VAN MEERE: I'd have to look at the manifest. There was probably about five.

UNIDENTIFIED 911 OPERATOR: Where are they?

VAN MEERE: I'm not sure yet. But I mean the director of maintenance or the department manager was talking to all of them and I've been talking to them...

UNIDENTIFIED 911 OPERATOR: They're all in the same place right now? Somebody's got them all confined? I mean nobody's gone home?

VAN MEERE: I don't know that. I can check. Obviously, I was sitting there I'm talking to the one guy that's running the department and I said, you know, we need to notify somebody and so he told me to handle it. So this is the first call that -- and the two flight crew members weren't notified until after they landed and...

UNIDENTIFIED 911 OPERATOR: Oh, well, how could they not see somebody or feel... VAN MEERE: These airplanes are, it's a twin Otter so the door had came open. They had a indication. He went back there, closed the door.

UNIDENTIFIED 911 OPERATOR: Oh, it did come open while he was flying?

VAN MEERE: While he was flying, OK, and the passengers that were there didn't tell the pilots until after they had landed.

UNIDENTIFIED 911 OPERATOR: They saw her jump?

VAN MEERE: Well, I don't want to say jumped. She left the airplane.

UNIDENTIFIED 911 OPERATOR: She leaves the airplane, they see her leave the airplane while it's in the air but they don't -- but they decide not to tell?

VAN MEERE: Ma'am, you'd have to talk to them. I haven't talked to them at all. One, from the one pilot told me was she was there, the one guy saw that she was there and he reached out to grab her and she had, you know, he couldn't.

UNIDENTIFIED 911 OPERATOR: All right, what's your name?

VAN MEERE: My name?

UNIDENTIFIED 911 OPERATOR: Yeah.

VAN MEERE: Is Ron.

UNIDENTIFIED 911 OPERATOR: OK, stay put and keep everybody there. Don't let anybody go home.

VAN MEERE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED 911 OPERATOR: OK.

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