UPDATE : Open Now -Yakima Airport Shut Down By Fatal Car Crash

Yakima flights have been restored after being canceled earlier today and the person at the wheel of the vehicle that crashed causing the cancellation has died.

Here's what happened according to reports from the Yakima Police Department and City Public Affairs office.

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High Speed Fatal Crash

Commercial flights at Yakima Air Terminal-McAllister Field were temporarily canceled due to a motor vehicle accident early this morning, Friday, May 20^th, that resulted in serious injuries to the driver and passenger.

The City communication office says:

At about 3:00 am this morning, the driver of a vehicle traveling at an extremely high rate of speed eastbound on Washington Avenue was unable to maintain control of the vehicle through the curve at 24^th Avenue....the vehicle veered off the road, hit two power transformers, and eventually impacted the air traffic control tower a few feet off the ground.  A tire that had become detached from the vehicle impacted the control tower about 15 feet off the ground.

The passenger and driver were both transported to the hospital with extensive injuries with the driver sustaining life-threatening injuries. The Yakima Police Department announced this afternoon that the driver has died.  The condition of the passenger is not known at this time.

Commercial Flights Are Resuming Now

UPDATE: Commercial flights will resume this evening  at the Yakima Air Terminal-McAllister Field, but the air traffic control tower at the airport is closed because of damage it sustained during that motor vehicle accident.

Yakima Communications Director, Randy Beehler says FAA inspectors have determined the control tower cannot be occupied at this time because structural support beams inside it were damaged when a vehicle impacted the tower.

Even though the tower cannot be accessed, flights are able to resume at the airport, ...Pilots can announce their locations to each other via radio.  They are trained to utilize an airport even without the assistance of air traffic controllers

Power was restored at about 2:00 pm today. The timeline for restoring full operations at Yakima Airport is unknown at this time.

Visit https://flyykm.com/ for the latest flight information.