Pilot in Colonie plane crash may have helped to avoid disaster

• Small plane crashes near library

• 34-year-old Canadian pilot dies on impact

• Details on exact flight path of plane

“The good Lord was working with Natalie and they put that plane down in one of the only places in that area where there weren’t many other people. They did it together.”

Colonie Town Supervisor Peter Crummey

COLONIE – A fiery plane crash that took place in a wooded area between high-density housing on Maxwell Road and the William Sanford Library on Monday, June 17 was seconds from taking more than the life of a 34-year-old Canadian pilot.

“Once in a blue moon do we have a plane go down in Colonie,” Colonie Town Supervisor Peter Crummey said. “We have an international airport here and it is something that you know could happen. It only makes this more painful and makes you realize that this could have been much worse.”

The trouble began at 8:15 a.m. as pilot Natalie Gillis, of Calgary, pulled off the taxiway and onto the North/South runway at Albany International Airport, known as 01/19 and took off.

The trip was planned to return the 1979 Piper PA 31-310 Navajo to its homebase in Montreal after a trip to map forests around Fayetteville, NC.

It was planned to be about an hour and a half flight.

According to the plane’s flight records on flightradar24.com , the aircraft stopped in Albany April 29 on the way to Fayetteville and left the following morning to finish the trip. It flew 11 flights over 45 days and Gillis took the first hop home on June 16 for overnight rest and fuel.

“The airplane flew on the runway heading for about 1.5 miles before turning left and left again. Of note, the airplane seemed to have difficulty gaining altitude and then went nearly straight up 800 feet and a loop then turned left did at least one roll and then the final impact,” National Transportation Safety Board Air Safety Inspector Lynn Spencer said. “This flight path is typical of an extreme loss of control situation.”

According to Spencer, in this crash there is an “extreme level of reporting from the citizens of this area” referencing the number of eyewitness, audio and video accounts available to the NTSB.

“When a pilot is struggling to control the airplane. You often see what looks like aerobatic flying. It is simply the pilots’ attempt to deal with everything from an engine failure to a control failure to an environmental event,” She said.

Spencer said that several of the witnesses reported that Gillis “was regaining control or trying to regain control of the aircraft” before the plane crashed into a wooded area about 100 feet from Maxwell Road. The patch of woods sits between Field Drive and Albany Shaker Road on the front and back.

It could have been much worse.

The explosion from the crash and subsequent fire from burning fuel would have been devastating “Given the proximity to the houses nearby and the library,” Crummey said.

“We are very fortunate, whether it was intentional efforts by the pilot or not, that the houses nearby, the library or a very busy street were not impacted by this crash,” Spencer said. “We would have no way of knowing at this time in our investigation whether that was intentional or not.”

Other than the death of Gillis, who died on impact, only one other person was slightly injured when hit with debris from the crash while walking her dog.

“The good Lord was working with Natalie and they put that plane down in one of the only places in that area where there weren’t many other people,” Crummey said. “They did it together.”

The response

According to Spencer, the air traffic controller saw what was happening with Gillis and the plane’s struggling to gain altitude and halted another plane from taking off. At the same time, Albany Airport Fire Chief Stephen Dorsey was heading to the airport for his shift.

“[He] responded right away because he was on his way to work and saw the smoke and contacted the airport via his radio to bring the trucks over from there,” Town of Colonie Fire Coordinator Mike Romano said. “He also called in the other town departments who came right behind.”

Shaker Road Loudonville Fire Department Asst. Chief Eric Brizzell was the first person from that department on scene and said that the airport’s department had the plane fire under control very quickly.

“We provided support for the Albany Airport crews,” Shaker Road Loudonville Chief Dom DiBenedetto said. “Our engines helped provide water to the two Airport trucks and we concentrated on the brush fire that resulted.”

Albany Airport CEO Phil Calderone said the airport resumed operations a short time later after it was deemed safe.

Dorsey said that because smaller propeller planes, like the Piper PA-31 Navajo, use gasoline and not jet fuel like larger jet engines, the crews knocked the fire down with water and did not use foam. The use of foam reduces vapors of puddled fuel, but in this case, firefighters had to knock down the fire so there was a reduced flash point on any remaining gasoline, he said.

Colonie police had Field Drive and some of Maxwell Road closed off until the NTSB removed the Aircraft Tuesday. Immediately the community came out to honor and mourn the loss of Gillis.

A small memorial was put near the site and Gillis’ brother Matthew Yap, visited the site and thanked responders with flowers that were put at the site.

“We met at the crash site. It was really hard,” Crummey said. “He wanted to recognize and show his appreciation for people who were involved with helping Natalie.”

Crummey said that the town is going to erect a permanent marker nearby, probably closer to the library where it would be accessible to more people and in a more contemplative place.

He said it probably would be very similar to the memorial marker on Route 7 that acknowledges the December 10, 1994 crash that took the life of another young pilot, Hosam “Sam” Rukieh.

“It will be something like that from the citizens of the Town of Colonie,” Crummey said. “We want to recognize that this event happened and Natalie.”

According to Crummey, the NTSB has given the Town permission to clean up the site, by removing partially burnt trees and brush still standing at the site. The town has collected some parts left behind and plans to incorporate them in some way at the memorial.

An Artist, Photographer and guide

Natalie Gillis used her 34 years to do many things beyond flying airplanes. She said in a May 2023 interview with the Profoundly Pointless podcast that flying was a way to keep her connected to the areas she loved.

She spent many seasons in the Arctic and Antarctic regions as a wilderness guide and photographer. Her Instagram and Facebook pages were filled with stunning images of places and animals that most people never get to see. She also recently published a book of poetry of her travels after earning a Masters Degree during COVID downtime and seasons.

“I have spent 12 seasons in the arctic and 5 seasons in Antarctica,” she said in the interview. “It is really the farthest place on planet Earth to get away from the busy shopping mall or traffic.”

She explained how she photographed polar bears and that narwhal whales were the most elusive.

Gillis, however, was a serious pilot. She commanded planes in some of the earth’s harshest environments as a pilot in polar regions and she announced in May that she earned the highest pilot certification for Canada, a Airline Transport Pilot Licence.

According to Transports Canada, an Airline Transport Pilot has to have at least 1,500 hours flying and 250 hours commanding an aircraft.

“[Gillis] was an airline transport pilot which is the highest level of pilot training and pilot certification that a pilot can attain. She was very well qualified,” Air Safety Inspector Spencer said.

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