Plane Crashes After Sky Diving Meet

Oct 09, 05:00 AM

Current Headlines: By Alan Gomez

Searchers found the wreckage of a plane Monday, but neither the pilot or nine sky divers aboard appeared to have survived a crash in the rugged Cascade Range in southern Washington, according to a emergency management official.

Jim Hall, director of Yakima Valley Emergency Management, said all on board were believed dead, and that their families were notified.

The aircraft was found about 7:40p.m. and searchers were able to verify by serial numbers that it was the missing aircraft, said Yakima County Office of Emergency Management spokeswoman Tina Wilson. She said crews were "arranging for removal of the occupants of the plane."

No one knew whether the sky divers repacked their parachutes after participating in a sky diving meet in Idaho. If they did, some hoped they may have had time to use them.

"It would be feasible, depending on a lot of different circumstances," said Heather Whittaker, who works at Skydive! Toledo (Wash.). "We are all hoping and praying that that's the case."

The names of the 10 people on board, including the pilot, were not released. Relatives headed to a lodge near White Pass to await word from searchers, said Lisa Truhlicka, spokeswoman with the county emergency management.

The Cessna 208 Grand Caravan left Star, Idaho, around 7 p.m. Sunday headed for Shelton, Wash., said Mike Fergus, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman. He said the plane fell off the agency's radar about 8 p.m. and was descending before it lost radar contact.

The licensed sky divers on board jump with Skydive Snohomish, Elaine Harvey, who runs the company, according to the Associated Press. "These people were beloved friends," she said.

Whittaker, who has logged 350 jumps, said sky divers generally repack their parachutes after a jump. But they sometimes carry large gear packs to shove the parachute into in case they don't have time to repack it.

The first report of a problem came from a camper in the White Pass area who told police he saw a plane flying low at about 8 p.m. and heard a crash shortly afterward.

The plane is registered to Kapowsin Air Sports of Shelton. Geoff Farrington, Kapowsin's co-owner, told the Associated Press the company had never lost a plane and that the single-engine plane that is now missing had never experienced mechanical problems.

Contributing: The Associated Press (c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.