Posted on 10/09/2007 12:26:10 PM PDT by Westlander
The plane crashed just east of the crest of the Cascades, about five miles south of White Pass and on the edge of the Goat Rocks Wilderness, said Wayne Frudd of Yakima County Search and Rescue. The crash site is about 25 miles southeast of Mount Rainier.
“I’m told it was a horrific sight and the airplane crashed at a fairly high speed,” said Jim Hall, director of Yakima Valley Emergency Management. The impact was estimated at 70 mph.
Searchers found the wreckage Monday night after following the scent of fuel to the crash site. They were able to verify by serial number that it was the plane carrying nine skydivers and a pilot that went missing a day earlier, said Tina Wilson, a Yakima Valley Emergency Management spokeswoman.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
any chance Fossett's plane is underneath it?
I must be missing something here. So nine skydivers were killed in the plane crash??? I assume that they had parachutes on??? Isn’t that what parachutes are for??? Jumping out of airplanes??? I’m afraid I’d wish the pilot godspeed and then I’d be out the door at the first sign of trouble.
If you are bouncing around inside a thunderstorm, it’s not a good idea to jump out of the airplane just yet.
Parachutists have ridden updrafts inside a thunderstorm to great heights and been frozen to death before.
Parachutists have ridden updrafts inside a thunderstorm to great heights and been frozen to death before." I think I'd take my chances outside. As the saying goes in aviation, the grounds the limit.
The plane left Star, Idaho, near Boise, on Sunday evening en route to Shelton, Wash., northwest of Olympia, but did not arrive. It had been returning from a skydiving meet in Idaho when it disappeared.
Fighting back tears, Kelly Craig, whose brother Casey, died in the crash, said the skydivers on board had made lots of jumps over the weekend. He doubted that they would have been prepared for an emergency jump, because it was unlikely they were strapped into parachutes and wearing goggles on their way home.
You can only tie the low altitude record.
I saw nothing about a thunderstorm in the article.
What a jerk that guy steve86 is....I saw nothing about a storm in the article. They were flying home from some kind of jumping event.
Some people just HAVE to come across as ‘bigger and smarter’. I would say steve86 has deep feelings of inadequacy.
Thanks for reading the excerpt.
I actually read the whole article ... for a variety of reasons I was curious as to the type aircraft involved, which turns out to be a Cessna “Grand Caravan” (I thought that was Chrysler ...)
Where were the survivors buried?
Says so right there on the post page. Guess he could use some donated IQ points himself.
So far I have not seen any further posts from this guy. Perhaps he’s been 86th from FR?
Sorry, I was trying to be a little sarcastic. The story is a bit ironic, it would be like reading a story of a boat sinking that was coming back from a scuba diving trip and everyone on board drowns. I assumed that the luggage boot on this airplane was too small to hold 9 parachutes and all their gear and so they probably had them in the passenger compartment with them close at hand. Maybe that’s why they’ve only recovered 7 bodies so far.
I spend a fair amount of time on aircraft of that general size, though not that specific type. So take this for what it’s worth. And I’m not a sky-diver.
The luggage boot on these things is bigger than I would have expected, before I got involved with them. My understanding of things is that when they’re jumping, the seats are all removed from the passenger cabin; it’s just open space. Also, when they’re jumping they suit up on the ground, and don’t bring anything else with them. For transit, they’d have seats installed, along with all their other stuff. It can get pretty crowded. Even if they had access to their chutes, it would take much longer than usual to suit up.
Yeah, but I watched “Point Break” once and saw Keanu Reeves jump out of an airplane with no parachute on and catch up to Patrick Swayze and they lived. :)
I’ve driven over White Pass at least 100 times. I lived in Yakima as a kid. That’s where I learned to snow ski. The Goat Rocks is incredibly rugged terrain. It’s within spitting distance of Mt. Rainier. Even if the skydivers had tried to exit the plane, there are few landing areas. It’s mostly jagged rocks, cliffs, and old growth timber.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.