Skydiving plane that crashed in Hawaii had close call in 2016 in Bay Area

HONOLULU — A skydiving plane that crashed in Hawaii, killing 11 people, was involved in a terrifying midair incident three years ago in the Bay Area that prompted the 14 skydivers aboard to jump earlier than planned to safety, according to government records.

The Beechcraft King Air plane crashed and burned on Oahu island’s north shore Friday evening after witnesses said it appeared to turn back shortly after takeoff.

In the July 23, 2016, incident near the Contra Costa County community of Byron, the twin-engine plane stalled three times and spun repeatedly before the pilot at that time managed to land it safely, the National Transportation Safety Board said in its investigative report. The agency blamed pilot error.

No one aboard survived the Hawaii crash, which left a small pile of smoky wreckage near a chain link fence surrounding Dillingham Airfield, a one-runway seaside facility.

Steven Tickemyer saw the plane take flight, get 75 to 100 feet off the ground and turn away from the mountain range nearby. He said the plane started to nosedive, flipped twice, and hit the ground nose first before exploding.

Witness Wylie Schoonover saw the plane flying over trees while driving from a nearby YMCA camp after picking up a friend. Then she saw smoke billowing from the airfield and drove over. There was an “insane amount of fire,” she said.

“It didn’t even look like a plane. A bunch of people were asking ‘what is this?’ It was completely gone,” Schoonover said.

The flight was operated by the Oahu Parachute Center skydiving company. Natacha Mendenhall said her cousin Casey Williamson, who worked at the company, was on board the plane. She said her family has not been officially notified of his death. But they provided Honolulu police with Williamson’s...