By Gwyneth Gibby
Gazette-Times reporter | Posted: Friday, September 14, 2007 12:00 am
The pilot of a Piper Cherokee and his passenger were found dead Thursday afternoon at the site of an airplane crash west of Alsea that apparently occurred the previous day.
The names of the two men were being withheld until family members could be notified.
Many details of the accident are still unclear, Benton County Sheriff Diana Simpson said Thursday night.
Family members of the pilot called the Sheriff's Office at 2 p.m. Thursday to report that they had seen the plane fly over their house in Alsea the previous afternoon. Shortly afterward they heard something that sounded like a crash.
The family set out to search for the plane but was unable to find it.
After not hearing from the pilot and being unable to locate the plane by Thursday afternoon, they called the Sheriff's Office.
Peggy Peirson, emergency services coordinator for Benton County, said four search and rescue volunteers and three deputies headed out to join the search.
According to Simpson, Peirson also called Oregon Emergency Management officials and asked them to track the plane's beacon. Officials did locate the beacon and an Air National Guard helicopter was dispatched to the area.
In the meantime, the pilot's family continued their search using all-terrain vehicles. They found the crash site, in the Salmonberry area, about 4 p.m., Simpson said.
The search and rescue team arrived shortly afterward and assisted in the removal of the bodies from the site, which was off the road.
The pilot was a certified flight instructor. The passenger has not been identified.
Simpson said it was likely the plane flew out of Aurora Airport near Salem. No distress call had been reported from the plane, she said.
Officials from the Federal Aviation Administration were expected to arrive today to begin an investigation.