Pilot, Son Found Dead in Plane’s Wreckage in Idaho

A San Diego County Sheriff’s Department reserve pilot and his son, who had been missing since Nov. 13, were found dead Thursday night in the wreckage of their light airplane in a mountainous area near the Idaho-Oregon border.

The bodies of Lawrence (Grady) Gaylord, 58, and his 25-year-old son, Larry, were found in the wreckage of the elder Gaylord’s single-engine Cessna 180 about 5 p.m. Thursday by a rancher on Hitt Mountain, about 70 miles northwest of Boise, said Jim Johnston of the Washington County, Idaho, Sheriff’s Department.

The wreckage was about 120 miles northwest of where the plane had disappeared from FAA radar screens in bad weather two weeks ago, said Lt. George Kneeshaw, commander of the air wing of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.

It appeared the plane had struck a high-voltage power transmission line when it crashed at the 4,000-foot mark on the mountain, Johnston said.

“There are these big trunk (transmission) lines that carry all the power to Boise from two dams to the north of us,” he said. “They are about as thick as someone’s thigh, and are located on towers, not just poles. From every indication we have, the plane struck one of those lines.”

Gaylord and his son had flown out of Gillespie Field on the morning of Nov. 13 en route to Caldwell, Idaho, where Gaylord had planned to inspect some property he was considering buying, Kneeshaw said.

Went Down in Bad Weather

They had been the subject of an intensive search by crews from San Diego, Idaho and the U.S. Customs Service since the plane disappeared from FAA radar while flying over the Owyhee Mountain range in the southwestern corner of Idaho, Kneeshaw said.

“The weather was really lousy that day,” said Lois Green, a spokeswoman for the Idaho Bureau of Aeronautics in Boise. “Visibility was terrible, it was raining and cloudy. It was not real good flying weather, to say the least.”

Searchers had scoured the area over the southwestern corner of Idaho and the northeastern corner of Nevada for several days, Kneeshaw said. The search was suspended Monday after no leads turned up, according to Green.

The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration were at the scene Friday afternoon to investigate the accident, according to Johnston.

The elder Gaylord, who lived in Fallbrook, was a former San Diego police officer who had served as a volunteer pilot with the sheriff’s Aero Squadron since 1970, according to Kneeshaw.

“Gaylord has been the key person in a lot of rescue missions,” he said. “Through his work with the Sheriff’s Department, he was able to combine two of his favorite pastimes, helping those in need and flying.”

Gaylord is survived by his mother, Irene, of Lander, Wyo.; his brother, Garth, of Fallbrook; and his five other children, Daphne, Josh, Garth, Eric and Jody.