Pilot killed in plane crash south of La Center

A Canby, Ore., woman piloting a small, single-engine airplane was killed when the plane crashed near an airfield south of La Center on Sunday afternoon.

Fire, medical and police personnel were called to Daybreak Field, 4403 N.E. 290th St., shortly after 1 p.m. for a call about a crashing plane.

Clark County Fire & Rescue spokesman Tim Dawdy said firefighters arrived to find that the plane, a Piper Super Cub, had crashed into some trees. The Clark County Sheriff’s Office identified the pilot as Mary H. Rosenblum, 65.

The Clark County Sheriff’s Office said the tail-dragger plane crashed south of the grass airfield, and firefighters removed the victim from the wreckage.

Dawdy said firefighters sprayed firefighting foam around the wreckage to prevent any fires from sparking.

Rosenblum was traveling with another pilot, who was in a separate aircraft. The two friends are from Oregon and intended to stop at the airfield. The two had flown to other locations that day, according to the sheriff’s office, and the other pilot did not see the crash.

The FAA was investigating, according to the sheriff’s office.

Rosenblum was a president for the Oregon Pilots Association, and was one of the few female pilots in the group. She was also an award-winning science fiction and mystery writer.

She received the Sidewise Awards for Alternate History award in short form writing in 2008, as well as the Baltimore Science Fiction Society’s Compton Crook Award in 1994.

Columbian archives show Rosenblum was a longtime judge for the Clark County Goat Association’s dairy goat cheese contests at the Clark County Fair.

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