Federal aviation and transportation authorities continue to investigate the cause of a fatal plane crash that occurred in rural Cowley County earlier this month.
Jerry Riffel, 62, of Denton, Texas, was killed in the accident Sept. 7. He was a native of Russell, Kan. Funeral services and burial were conducted in Russell on Friday.
Riffel was a graduate of Kansas State University.
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are in charge of the investigation and will eventually produce a written report on the accident, Cowley undersheriff Bill Mueller said.
Mueller, though, did briefly provide a few additional details regarding the accident last week.
He confirmed there was no evidence that Riffel made any distress calls as his plane went down about 10 miles north of Winfield in a field near the intersection of 111th and 62nd Roads. That would seem to indicate the problems that caused the crash developed suddenly, Mueller said.
Riffel was to be flying from Denton to Junction City when the crash occurred.
Also, Mueller spoke to questions about Riffel’s body being found a considerable distance, a mile or more north, from the wreckage of his RV-7A private plane. Records show Riffel had the plane certified as airworthy about three years ago, in the winter of 2008.
On the day of the crash, witnesses told reporters the plane approached the crash area from the northwest and that the plane appeared to touch the ground once, bouncing up and clipping trees, before finally coming to a rest.
There is evidence, Mueller said, that the plane turned upside down at some point during its descent. Items from inside the plane were found along the crash route and near Riffel’s body.
It’s possible, he said, Riffel fell out of the plane and was killed as the plane overturned and traveled to its final stopping point.
“We don’t know that for certain, obviously,” Mueller said. “But it would seem to make some sense with what we found at the crash site.”
The undersheriff also confirmed that a blank check, from a banking account, bearing Riffel’s name had been found in Winfield some time after the crash. It was turned into authorities.
It’s not clear what, if anything, that would indicate about the crash.
Federal investigators removed wreckage from the scene a short time after the crash and will use it in their investigation.