10 die in skydiver plane crash

2007-10-09 10:03

Yakima, Washington - Searchers following the smell of fuel found the wreckage of a plane that crashed in the rugged central Washington Cascades, but neither the pilot nor nine skydivers aboard appeared to have survived.

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 at 19:40 PDT (02:40 GMT Tuesday) and searchers were able to verify by serial number that it was the missing aircraft, said Yakima Valley Emergency Management spokesperson Tina Wilson.

The Cessna 208 Grand Caravan left Star, Idaho, near Boise, on Sunday evening en route to Shelton, Washinton, northwest of Olympia. It was returning from a skydiving meet.

One man at a Red Cross centre at White Pass said his 30-year-old son was aboard the plane. He displayed a family photo of the young man skydiving with a brother and sister.

"He worked hard and he played hard - we just want to find him," said the father, who did not give his name.

When members of the Tacoma Mountain Rescue Team came upon the wreckage they found that the tail section was separated from the rest of the plane, Wilson said. It has not been located.

The names of those aboard have not been released.

Based on radar transmissions and a hunter's report of seeing a plane flying low on Sunday evening and then hearing a crash, the search was focused on a steep, densely forested area near White Pass, about 72km west of Yakima.

Elaine Harvey, co-owner of the skydiving company Skydive Snohomish, told The Seattle Times that nine of the 10 aboard were either employees of her business or else licensed skydivers who considered Snohomish their "home drop zone". The company operates a training school and offers skydiving flights.

Skydive Snohomish had nothing to do with the flight to Idaho or the event held there, Harvey said.

- AP