PORT ANGELES — The details of a story haunting a man since he was a child growing up in Port Angeles eventually led him to a dusty box and inspired him to write a book that has been recently published.
“Finding Carla,” by Ross Nixon, is available at Port Book and News, 104 E. First St., Port Angeles, or online at http://tinyurl.com/PDN-findingcarla or on Amazon.
“Finding Carla,” published by Aviation Supplies &Academics Inc., recounts the story of the Oien family who died after crashing their plane in California in the 1960s.
Nixon, 55, graduated from Port Angeles High School in 1979 and now lives in Anchorage, Alaska, where he works as a commercial airline pilot. He was born in Canada.
“I learned to fly at the Port Angeles Airport and went on to become an Alaskan pilot,” he said.
Nixon said he first heard of the tragic tale in 1972 while working with his father on his aircraft at the airport.
The story haunted him, he said.
In 1967, the Oien family crashed into the Trinity Mountains of California only 8 miles from a highway and beneath a busy commercial airway, according to Nixon.
The family of three — Alvin Oien Sr., his wife, Phyllis, and stepdaughter, Carla Corbus — were flying in a Cessna 195 from Oregon to San Francisco when inclement weather caused the plane to crash.
“The mother and daughter survived for almost two months, while the pilot/father was lost trying to walk out of the mountains,” Nixon said.
“The family left a diary and series of letters describing their predicament. They were below a commercial airway and watched aircraft fly over them but they had no way to signal these aircraft.”
The ruggedness of the terrain and the fact that they were far off their intended course made finding them by sight impossible, Nixon said.
This was before radio-beacon type emergency locators were required equipment for airplanes, he said.
The wreck was found by hunters half a year later. A diary and series of letters from the survivors explained their predicament. These Oien family documents as well as photos of the family and from the search are included in the story.
This tragedy spurred political action toward the mandatory Emergency Locator Transmitters (ELTs) that are carried aboard all U.S. civil aircraft, Nixon said.
A law requiring ELTs “was pushed through with help by Sen. [Warren] Magnuson of Washington,” Nixon said.
As an adult, Nixon “researched the story and found the [Oien] documents,” he said.
“The letters and diaries were in a house along the Elwha River, kept with the son of the family, Al Oien Jr.
“I started researching the book in 2009 and met Oien in Port Angeles in 2010.”
The two became good friends, Nixon said, “and over the years I put together the story — at first the letters and documents were missing. Finally they were all found in Al’s garage in a mislabeled box.
“Oddly the story that I heard about as a boy in 1972 at the airport in Port Angeles was resolved all these years later underneath the approach to this very airport.”
The book was written during visits to Port Angeles and at locales throughout Alaska, Nixon said.
“Usually when I came to Port Angeles to visit with Al and to write, I’d stay at my mother’s home,” he said.
“At night I’d revise my notes and sometimes I’d park at Ediz Hook and just write on my laptop. A lot of the final writing was done in pilot quarters throughout Alaska but the rough draft was written in PA on visits home.”
“Finding Carla” is Nixon’s first book, he said, adding he hopes to pen another in the future.
“I’d like to write a book about growing up in Port Angeles — sort of a coming-of-age story.
“In the 1970s, Port Angeles was the way America used to be — small, prosperous and where we all knew each other. You could go to school, get a job at the mill or in the woods, get married and live your life without much trouble.”
Nixon has worked as a commercial diver, a police officer and served in the U.S. Navy Seabees as a welder.
Nixon said his mother and sister still live in the Port Angeles area, and that he has “stayed in touch with my friends there and hope to move back home soon.”
