The three occupants on board the twin-engine Cessna that went missing this morning have been identified.
All are Pacific Cataract and Laser Institute employees that were headed to the company’s Lewiston, Idaho location and the Lewiston-Nez Perce County Regional Airport when Federal Aviation Administration officials lost contact with the plane at about 7:30 a.m.
The three occupants of the plane have been identified as Chehalis-Centralia Airport board member Ken Sabin, Rod Rinta and Dr. Paul Shenk. Sabin piloted the plane. Rinta, a laser technician, is a Lewis County resident. Shenk is a surgeon from Woodland. Rinta and Shenk have both been employed by PCLI since 1993.
“It’s very distressing to the staff, but they’re remaining hopeful,” said Debbie Eldredge, chief operating officer for PCLI. “They’re remaining hopeful they will be found, we’re all praying for their safety.”
PCLI sends its surgeons and surgery teams to the company’s 17 sites about four times a week from their headquarters in Chehalis.
“They’re both wonderful people, the staff and patients love both them. They’re aren’t two finer people here. It’s a very serious situation. We’ve never had anything like this happen,” she said.
Most of the company’s 17 locations are in Washington — Bellevue, Bellingham, Chehalis, Kennewick, Olympia, Silverdale, Spokane, Tacoma, Vancouver and Yakima. Other sites are located in Boise and Lewiston, Idaho; Anchorage, Ala.; Great Falls, Mont.; Albuquerque, N.M.; Portland and Tualatin, Ore.
Rescuers have yet to find the plane, however, a weak emergency locator signal has been detected from the area where the Chehalis-based plane carrying three passengers went missing north of Randle this morning.
A search and rescue helicopter flying near the area had trouble with wind and clouds; after refueling at the Morton airport, the chopper is headed back to search the area again.
Loggers working north of Randle this morning reported hearing the sound of a plane banking hard, followed by the sound of a crash, near the last known location of the airplane after it turned back from a planned flight across the Cascades, after reporting one of its engines was malfunctioning.
National Weather Service officials said there was moderate to heavy rain in the area when the plane went missing just before 8 a.m.
“There was a lot of precipitation,” said Allen Kam, meteorologist with the NWS.
Rescue officials have confirmed that the plane was back on course to return home to Chehalis at the time the aircraft disappeared from radar.
Meanwhile, a search and rescue helicopter “may have seen something unusual” at a site with nearby peaks rising to 4,000 feet above sea level, according to Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield.
The helicopter was fueling up for another trip at 1:30 p.m. and an improvement in the inclement weather could aid the search effort.
“It’s starting to break up there, which is a good sign,” said Mansfield, who is at the Morton airport with several deputies.
He said loggers heard the sounds of the plane at 7:40 a.m., which matches the last moments the plane registered on radar tracking.
The report from Westport Timber Company workers has not been confirmed, Mansfield said, noting that heavy wind at the time made it difficult to know exactly what they were hearing.
The rescue operations are hampered by the presence of snow, making it difficult to locate the missing white plane. NWS forecast more precipitation tonight.
“It’s a missing plane situation,” said Nisha Marvel, a spokeswoman for the Washington State Department of Transportation’s Aviation Division. “We’re still looking in that area between White Pass and Chehalis using radar information.”
According to FlightAware.com, a flight tracking website, the plane lost more than 10,000 feet in little more than a minute’s time at 7:26 a.m. The plane regained altitude for the next 13 minutes before descending again. At 7:44 a.m., as the plane was over rugged national forestland, the aircraft could no longer be tracked, according to the site.
The Cessna 340A has tail number N68718.
It is not known whether the inclement weather played a factor with the engine troubles.
Roe said the twin-engine plane with deicing capabilities was an “adequate airplane for the job.”
“It’s not a rinky dink plane,” he said.
