RSSPlane crashes in Cascades
Two people killed when small plane hits hillside nearLittle Naches RiverYakima Herald-Republic
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CLIFFDELL -- Federal authorities are expected arrive this morning to begin their invest-igation of a plane crash in the Little Naches River drainage that killed two people Friday afternoon.
The craft, a single-engine, four-seat Lancair ES, went down about 3 p.m. in rough terrain near Mount Clifty, located south of Easton, midway between State Route 410 and Interstate 90.
Searchers found the bodies of a man and a woman about 5:35 p.m. in a debris field estimated to be a half-mile long and a quarter-mile wide.
The bodies were found about 100 feet from the fuselage, search-ers said.
Their identities have not been released pending notice to family members.
The airplane is registered to Eugene Long of Lafayette, Colo.
Initial reports that four people were aboard turned out to be incorrect.
The plane was en route from Ketchikan, Alaska, to Mountain Home, Idaho, where it was scheduled to arrive about 4 p.m., according to the state Department of Transportation's Aviation Division and Kittitas County authorities.
The pilot's last contact with Seattle Air Traffic Control occurred south of Cle Elum, where controllers lost radar and radio contact.
Nisha Marvel, an Aviation Division spokeswoman, said she had no reports that the pilot made distress calls.
Mark Hergert, 49, of Spanaway, Wash., was camping with his wife south of the crash site when he heard the light plane pass by and then heard a sound he described as a "boof." He said the plane's engine was running when it crashed.
"I knew that was the sound of an airplane crashing," said Hergert, who immediately jumped in his pickup to drive up a Forest Service road to call authorities on his cell phone. He then returned to his campsite and rode his motorcycle back up the road and then up a motorcycle trail until he found debris.
"I just got lucky on taking this trail," he said.
He then rode back to alert authorities.
Pam Berry, a volunteer with the Nile-Cliffdell Fire Department working traffic control at a forest road, said authorities received calls from five different campgrounds after the craft went down.
The crash scene is be-tween Mathew and Pileup creeks, about two miles north of Little Naches Road and two miles south of Mount Clifty.
Frank Freshwater, a Nile volunteer firefighter, was one of the first people on the scene. He said searchers quickly began finding debris after they trekked up the motorcycle trail.
He said the debris ranged from 8 inches square to as large as a wing.
"There were 100 pieces of the craft that were less than a foot square," Freshwater said after searchers returned to the forest road staging area.
He said seachers first located the landing gear and farther up a small ridge found parts of the fuselage and personal effects.
The bodies were located a short distance away.
Searchers then chose to leave the scene to protect evidence until federal authorities can arrive today to take up the investigation.
Authorities chose to leave the remains at the scene overnight and Kittitas County, the county in which the crash occurred, will take responsibility for removing the bodies, said Jack Hawkins, chief deputy coroner for Yakima County.
Kittitas County officials said federal investigators are expected at the scene about 11 a.m. today.
Ty Brown, a lieutenant with the Nile-Cliffdell Fire Department and incident commander for the search and rescue operation, said it appeared the plane was traveling east to west and was turning before it went down.
Brown said it appeared the plane clipped the tops of trees before it crashed, leading to the wide debris field.
Witnesses told author-ities they saw the plane in a fairly rapid descent prior to the crash.
According to an aircraft data base, the craft was built in 2004. The plane
was amateur-built from a kit and considered an experimental aircraft.
The plane won an award for best composite at the 2007 Sun 'n' Fun competition in Florida, a large annual gathering of experimental aircraft enthusiasts, according to the event's Web site.
* David Lester can be reached at 577-7674 or dlester@yakimaherald.com
* Mark Morey can be reached at 577-7671 or mmorey@yakimaherald.com.
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