Official Calls Crash Survival Unlikely

A veteran investigator says the likelihood of a Thousand Oaks couple surviving an airplane crash 19 years ago on a steep hillside in Humboldt County was “pretty close to zero.”

Norman and Beverly Jean Waschers’ plane was found Thursday in the mountains near the lumber town of Scotia, about 25 miles south of Eureka. Both the plane’s nose and tail were ripped away in the June 19, 1977, crash, and so far investigators have found nothing to indicate there were any survivors, said Humboldt County Sheriff’s Deputy Roy Reynolds.

Reynolds and about 15 members of the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Posse were to return to the hills last Saturday to search for human remains in the wreckage or in the redwood forest that surrounds the single-engine Commander aircraft.

Reynolds, who has extensive experience in crash investigation, is not optimistic about what they might find.

“I’ve been in special services for eight years and I’ve been to eight to 10 plane crashes,” Reynolds said, “and I would say the likelihood of anybody walking away from this one is pretty close to zero.”

Foresters from the Pacific Lumber Co. who had been out mapping a new logging road found the wreckage.

Reynolds said special search dogs might be brought in to help, although their effectiveness is questionable due to the age of any remains that might be in the area. If there are any human remains, Reynolds expects they would be in the front part of the plane.

The Waschers’ daughters live near Scotia and have declined comment on the discovery of the plane until they find out more about the crash.

Reynolds says the need to find answers is as important today as it would have been had the wreckage been discovered 19 years ago.

“There’s just as much urgency now because we’re trying to give the family something solid,” he said.