OK Expected for Group to Examine Forest Plane Wrecks : Aircraft: Preservationists want to comb remains in Ventura County. Their request is opposed by a salvage firm that wants to collect and sell parts.

An international airplane recovery group known for its exhaustive yet controversial search for a piece of Amelia Earhart’s airplane is poised to study the plane wrecks in Ventura County’s Los Padres National Forest for historical significance.

Officials of the U. S. Forest Service said they expect to allow the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, called TIGHAR, to comb the remains of 90 known plane wrecks, including bits and pieces of two dozen World War II planes that crashed more than 40 years ago.

Ron Bassett, Forest Service district ranger in Ojai, said he hopes to make a final decision on the matter within the next few weeks, setting into motion the group’s extensive exploration, which could take up to two years to complete.

But the plane recovery group’s quest to survey the crashes in Ventura County’s forest is drawing fire from the owner of a California salvaging firm that requested permission a year ago to remove the wrecks and sell them for scrap.

The historically significant planes are also the most valuable. The tail section of a vintage bomber could sell for as much as $20,000, while a small pin from a wing of a World War II aircraft could sell for $8,000.

Terry Geary, owner of Wreckfinders California, accused the recovery group and its co-founder, Richard Gillespie, of pushing him out of the project.

“I’m the guy who put this whole thing together,” Geary said. Gillespie “didn’t go through all the trouble to make this thing work.”

Gillespie said in a telephone interview from his office in Wilmington, Del., that he simply wants to make sure the historically important aircraft are identified for placement in museums--not sold for parts, as suggested by Geary.

“It is the age-old conflict between the preservationist and the treasure hunter,” Gillespie said. “We just want to make sure that something historically important doesn’t get sold to the airplane rebuilders.”

Shortly after Geary requested permission to remove the aircraft in June, 1991, Gillespie contacted the Forest Service and requested that it forbid the removal of the old aircraft until an extensive survey of the area was completed.

He said such studies are required under the federal Historic Preservation Act. The Forest Service agreed and denied Geary’s request.

“It is the same situation you would have if you wanted to put an interstate highway through an Indian burial ground,” Gillespie said. “No agency can do anything until they go through a review process.”

Gillespie said his nonprofit group decided that it would be in the best position to review the crash sites and put in a proposal of its own with the Forest Service.

Since it was founded eight years ago, the group has been involved in numerous recovery projects. In March, Gillespie announced that the group had found a piece of Earhart’s plane on Nikumaroro Island in the central Pacific.

But some historians quickly denounced Gillespie’s claim, saying that his research was shoddy and that he was only trying to get publicity for his group. He said study is continuing on the matter.

Gillespie said he is especially interested in the remains of 13 rare airplanes in the Ventura County forest. They include a World War II fighter plane, a bomber, several military trainer aircraft and several prewar light aircraft.

“It could turn out to be something pretty neat,” Gillespie said. “You just don’t know until you go there and evaluate what’s there and what kind of condition it is in.”