Story from 2006 about the fatal crash

This is the story published Feb. 9, 2006, about the fatal crash.

A two-seat airplane crashed Wednesday afternoon, killing a prominent Modesto businessman and a flight school owner near Oakdale Airport.

Sources close to the investigation said the victims were former Mo-desto Irrigation District Chairman Chuck Billington, 65, and Modesto Flight Center co-owner Dave Mesenhimer, 61.

Billington's plane, believed to be a Zenith Zodiac 601 SL, went down at 3:18 p.m. in an orchard off Sierra Road, Stanislaus County sheriff's Sgt. Mike Parker said.

Parker said it wasn't clear where or when the plane had taken off. He also said he wasn't sure whether the plane was landing at Oakdale Airport.

Federal Aviation Administration officials were expected to arrive today to take over the investigation.

Witnesses reported seeing the aircraft lose control over Jack Bauman's almond orchard on Sierra Road. The plane crashed about 200 yards from his front porch.

"It could've crashed into our house," Bauman, 48, said.

He rushed to the plane, but flames already had engulfed it when he got there.

"I wanted to see if anyone was alive," Bauman said, "but when I saw the flames, I knew …"

Brian Sleeman, 37, said he drove to the wreck after he heard a crash when he went to buy a car part at nearby Oakdale Wreckers. He said he found the plane planted nose first in the ground with its wings melting from the heat of the fire.

"It was bizarre," Sleeman said. "I went expecting to find something, but I couldn't see anything."

The Sheriff's Department would not confirm the victims' names at the scene. However, MID Director Tom Van Groningen said a friend in the sheriff's office told him the plane's passengers were Billington and Mesenhimer.

"We are just so saddened by it all," Van Groningen said.

About 6:45 p.m., a sheriff's car pulled up in front of Billington's home. Sheriff's Lt. Darren

Gharat said they were at Billington's home to notify family members about who they thought the victims were. But Gharat said he could not confirm the identities to The Bee.

A friend of the Mesenhimers who was standing outside their Albers Road home said the fam-ily didn't want to comment.

Billington, who served for 20 years on the MID board until this fall, owned three Modesto manufacturing companies: Billington Welding and Manufacturing, Modesto Steel and Modesto Welding Products.

He participated in a number of community groups, including the North Modesto Kiwanis Club and Modesto's Salvation Army Advisory Board. He also raced cars for more than 40 years, and had plans for eight races this year, said Dick Hagerty, a longtime friend and business partner who raced with him.

"Whatever he did, he did with total enthusiasm," said Hagerty, 66. "He was the most creative, innovative, energetic man you absolutely ever met. This town never had a guy like him."

Hagerty said he heard the news from Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Ricardo Córdova, whom he knew from the Salvation Army board.

LOVE OF FLYING

Mesenhimer has been a flight instructor for more than 30 years. He opened Modesto Flight Center with Larry Askew in the early 1980s.

Mesenhimer told The Bee in 2002 that he loved his job as a flight instructor because it didn't feel like work.

"I just enjoy it. People pay me to do my avocation, my hobby, so to speak," he said at the time.

Wednesday's crash was the second fatal incident near the airport in two years.

In March 2004, a Ripon man and an Oakdale woman were killed when their single-engine 1947 Ercoupe crashed a few miles from the airport in a field off Warnerville Road.

'BE SAFE'

Allen Short, MID general manager, said he had lunch with Billington on Wednesday, and Billington told him he intended to go flying in the afternoon. "I said 'Be safe.' That's one of the last things I said to him," Short said.

Billington bought the plane less than a month ago and had planned to spend more time on his hobbies now that he was finished with his MID tenure, Hagerty said.

"We told him, 'Chuck, you're 65. Let's enjoy life. Let's do all the fun stuff,' " Hagerty recalled telling Billington recently to talk him out of running for another elected office.

Hagerty said he had breakfast with Billington every Friday since 1971. As of last Friday,

Billington needed 20 hours of ground training and nine to 10 hours in the air with an instructor before he could fly on his own, Hagerty said.

Hagerty and Billington had flown together in the past, but let their licenses expire about 15 years ago. Hagerty was renewing his license so he could fly with his friend. Hagerty was a co-owner of the plane, on which they planned to spend about $100,000 to purchase it and add some technical improvements.

Hagerty said Billington was drawn to the Zenith plane because it offered a relatively easy way to regain his pilot's license.

The plane, classified by the Federal Aviation Administration as a sport light aircraft, has a top speed of nearly 150 mph, a 27-foot wingspan and can climb 1,200 feet per minute.

To become certified to fly this type of aircraft in concert with another pilot, a person would need only a valid driver's license and 20 hours of flight training, according to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, a trade group.

Don Monaco, 71, a friend who was involved in car racing with Billington, said he went to Hemet with Billington to look at the plane before he bought it.

"I'm just absolutely sick. He's just had a golden life, all good stuff happened to him. He was looking forward to spending time with his grandchildren," Monaco said.

This story was originally published April 16, 2009 at 12:15 PM with the headline "Story from 2006 about the fatal crash."