Border Agent Dies When Plane Crashes

Sat., Oct. 24, 1998

From Staff

A Border Patrol plane crashed Friday in remote terrain east of Bellingham, killing the lone agent on board, an official said.

The agency’s Cessna 182 was responding to embedded motion sensors tripped Friday afternoon in the Columbia Valley Canyon area when it crashed at about 2:30 p.m., said Bill Strassberger, an Immigration and Naturalization Service spokesman in Laguna Niguel, Calif. The canyon is a known drug and alien smuggling area, Strassberger said.

Killed was agent Walter Scott Panchison, 53, of Bellingham. He was a 20-year patrol veteran and former Marine fighter pilot.

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