YACOLT, Wash. — A pilot and passenger were rescued by a Navy helicopter crew after their small plane crashed near Yacolt in Clark County.
The single-engine plane was unable to maintain altitude while flying from Bend, Oregon to the Tacoma Narrows Airport near Gig Harbor Monday afternoon.
The pilot alerted air traffic control in Portland when the plane’s engine started running rough and the aircraft was losing altitude.
Voice and radar signals were lost at 3:47 p.m., but the plane’s last-known signal gave search crews a good target for a search area, the Washington State Department of Transportation said.
A helicopter out of Naval Air Station Whidbey Island searched by air while personnel from the Clark County Sheriff’s Office searched on the ground.
The Navy crew found the Piper airplane near Jack Mountain around 9:30 p.m. The pilot and lone passenger were flown to the Yacolt Primary School parking lot to be checked for injuries. They were not believed to be seriously hurt and were able to walk to the clearing where the helicopter picked them up, WSDOT said.
The plane is registered out of Vashon Island, but names and other details about the pilot and passenger were not known Monday night.
Cox Media Group
