QUILCENE – National Transportation and Safety Board investigators are expected to begin this week looking into what caused a plane to crash into the northesast side of Mount Walker killing a Lopez Island couple on Thursday.
The wreckage was found by Jefferson County deputies and state Department of Transportation officials along with searchers in a King County sheriff’s helicopter, said Tim Perry, Jefferson County undersheriff, on Friday.
The helicopter was used to recover the bodies from the rugged site at 2,000 feet late Friday afternoon.
The bodies were taken to Kosec Funeral Home in Port Townsend, where arrangements were to be made.
Perry identified the victims as the plane’s registered owner, Wilburn O. Ingham, 77, and his wife, Norma Ingham, 64.
The plane, a modified Cessna 205, took off from Lopez Island, about 60 miles north of Quilcene, Thursday morning, headed for Madera, Calif.
Family members called the Federal Aviation Administration when it didn’t arrive as scheduled, said agency spokesman Mike Fergus.
The FAA checked its radar, which last showed the plane over the North Olympic Peninsula at 9:20 a.m. Thursday.
Perry said Transportation employees first used a King County helicopter to search for the plane on Thursday.
However, said Perry, it was mistakenly reported to officials that the couple landed at the California destination on time, which led to the search being called off.
The mistake wasn’t realized until 2 p.m on Friday.
