Search for 8 Plane Crash Victims Halted
Hope for finding survivors faded as crew members suspended their search for eight crewmen missing from an Air Force Reserve plane that crashed into the ocean.
“We have officially changed the nature of the mission from a search and rescue mission to a search and recovery mission,” said Col. Gene Garton, vice wing commander of the 304th Rescue Squadron in Portland, Ore. “We are attempting to recover remains. We don’t expect there to be any survivors.”
The U.S. Coast Guard halted its search indefinitely pending further development, Petty Officer Lars Hollis said. Meanwhile, two Coast Guard cutters kept watch on debris, including a wing section, floating on the water’s surface. Crews were expected to salvage the wing today.
The HC-130 from the 304th Rescue Squadron was flying a training mission out of Portland on Friday when it reported total electronic failure and crashed 40 miles off Point Mendocino in Northern California.
The crew of the first Coast Guard helicopter out of McKinleyville reached the crash site two hours after getting the distress call. Under the light of a full moon, they spotted radioman Robert Vogel of Albany, Ore., in a survival suit, clinging to a seat cushion.
“His search light shined on me. I raised my arm out of the water . . . and he saw me. It was the sweetest sound in the world when I heard that helicopter over the top of me,” Vogel said Sunday.
Vogel was reported in fair condition in an Arcata hospital.
Two bodies were pulled from the water Saturday and brought by Coast Guard cutter to Eureka, where they were to undergo autopsies today.
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