Pilot Found Alive 2 Days After Crash in Idaho
A pilot missing for two days was found dangling upside-down in the wreckage of his single-engine plane in a heavily forested area of north-central Idaho.
Paul C. Herr of Pasco, Wash., was in fair condition Thursday at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in Lewiston after his Wednesday rescue, a nursing supervisor said.
Members of the sheriff’s rescue unit rappelled into the site in the Clearwater National Forest from a helicopter, then used chain saws to cut a landing pad.
“He was in a very steep area, and topographically it’s really, really rugged,” Idaho County sheriff’s spokeswoman Trudy Slagle said.
Herr was making the final leg of his trip from Jackson, Wyo., to Pasco on Monday in his 40-year-old Piper 180 when he reported engine failure over Idaho, state Transportation Department spokesman Mel Coulter said. Though air traffic controllers in Seattle tried to direct him to an airstrip in Kooskia, Idaho -- just 20 miles away -- he never arrived.
Bad weather delayed an aerial search until Wednesday.
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