Members of a recovery team traveled by Snowcat to Cloud Cap Inn on the north side of Mount Hood on Wednesday morning before setting out on foot to the site of a plane crash. (Hood River Sheriff’s Office)Photo Gallery
A team of nearly two dozen rescuers Wednesday morning reached the site of a plane crash on Mount Hood in their effort to retrieve the remains of a pilot from Battle Ground.
Hood River County, Ore., sheriff’s Sgt. Pete Hughes said the team of 23 military and search and rescue officials reached the crash site around 9 a.m. They confirmed the death of the pilot, whose identification hasn’t been officially confirmed, but there is no reason to believe it’s not George Regis, 63.
Authorities located Regis’ downed plane Tuesday on Mount Hood. He had been missing since departing Friday afternoon from Grove Field Airport in Camas. He was the sole occupant of the 1975 Rockwell Commander 112A — a fixed-wing, single-engine aircraft.
Regis was believed to have been headed to Arizona, and cellphone data pinged his last known location Saturday near Newberg, Ore., the Clark County Sheriff’s Office said.
Pilots taking off from the Camas airport typically don’t have a flight plan, according to the sheriff’s office.
The Civil Air Patrol located a signal from the plane’s emergency locator and narrowed its location to the area of Eliot Glacier, on the north side of Mount Hood, the Hood River County Sheriff’s Office said. A pilot flew over the area at about 3:15 p.m. Tuesday, spotted the downed plane and visually confirmed it was Regis’ aircraft, based on the tail number.
The Hood River County Sheriff’s Office coordinated the recovery effort that began early Wednesday morning. The rescuers who headed out on the mountain around 4:30 a.m. included nine personnel from Hood River Crag Rats search and rescue, nine others from the Air Force Reserve Command’s 304th Rescue Squadron and five from Oregon Air National Guard’s 125th Special Tactics Squadron.
Team members were hauled by Snowcat to Cloud Cap Inn before heading out on foot using snowshoes and skis, Hughes said. The cabin is used as a mission center for all operations on the north side of Mount Hood; it is not accessible by regular vehicles, he said.
The members carried copious amounts of rope and a sled with runners to be used to transport the pilot’s body. They worked to remove the body from the plane through the morning, Hughes said. The recovery effort was expected to be finished by noon.
Fair weather allowed the team to ascend to the 8,750-foot level of Eliot Glacier without complications, Mount Hood Sheriff’s Office said in a news release later Wednesday.
“Our focus is on the recovery of Mr. Regis,” Hughes said in a phone interview. A medical examiner will continue the process of identification, he added.
Plans to remove the wreckage from the mountain are not yet in place. The U.S. Forest Service will likely be in charge of that, Hughes said.
National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Peter Knudson said a crash investigator based out of Los Angeles is traveling to the area and is expected in Portland by Wednesday evening. NTSB investigators typically travel to crash sites and document wreckage, but the agency hasn’t yet decided whether the investigator will trek up the mountain.
“We’re uncertain about getting to the site. It does look a bit perilous from what we’ve seen,” Knudson said.
He added that the removal of the wreckage may take more than a day. Once the plane is moved to a secure location, Knudson said, the investigator will prepare a preliminary report detailing the facts and circumstances surrounding the crash. The report generally takes about two weeks to complete, he said.
The only information the federal agency has gathered so far is flight data from Regis’ plane.
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