Searchers Find Missing Plane 3 Spokane Men Believed To Have Died In Crash

Peter Anest Sr. learned to fly as a boy and trained as a gunner on a B-17 during World War II.

The 78-year-old Spokane man, a fixture at the Skyway Cafe and hangars at Felts Field, and two other Spokane men are believed to have been killed in a plane crash while heading home from a Western Washington air show on Saturday.

His brother, Sam Anest, reported to be in his 70s, and James Bleasner, 55, also are believed to have died when the single-engine Cessna 180 crashed near the small town of Gold Bar on the western slope of the Cascade Range.

The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office had not confirmed the identities of the three men Wednesday and plans to remove the bodies today.

Rescue workers had been searching for the three men since Monday and found their plane about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday near Stevens Pass on the east side of Haystack Mountain.

“The terrain there is totally inaccessible,” said Jan Jorgensen, sheriff’s spokesman. “It’s on a mountain.”

A rescue helicopter could not land there, and workers had to rappel to the site.

“The crash scene was described as catastrophic,” Jorgensen said.

The search, which began two days after the men had left the Arlington Fly-In air show, apparently bound for Spokane, was hampered earlier in the week due to poor weather, a lack of a filed flight plan or any locator equipment. The Federal Aviation Administration is expected to investigate the cause of the crash.

The search, involving more than 20 aircraft, focused on the Stevens Pass and Snoqualmie Pass areas - the main east-to-west flight routes for pilots.

A witness at Duffy Lake said he was listening to a plane circling overhead about 2 p.m Saturday when he heard what he thought was a backfire.

“We believe that was the impact,” Jorgensen said. “We have no idea what happened at this point.

Karl Moore, search and rescue co-ordinator for the Aviation Division of the state Department of Transportation, said Bleasner was the pilot and owner of the plane.

Friends and family remember Peter Anest as a skilled pilot with a passion for flying.

Anest helped his friend, Bleasner, build an airstrip at his home, said Addison Pemberton, a pilot who knew both men.

Anest was the talkative one, who lived and breathed airplanes. Bleasner was the quiet one, a man who’d listen and help out, Pemberton said. Sam Anest also flew planes 50 years ago, but hadn’t touched a control stick in years, Pemberton said.

Peter Anest lived on a street that sits in the shadow of Browne Mountain. Many of his neighbors are retired, like himself. He kept a rare DeLorean car in his garage.

“He was quiet, never bothered anybody and lived alone,” said a neighbor who has known Anest for about 25 years.

Peter Anest’s 43-year-old son, Perry, said his father was born in Everett, Wash., and learned to fly on a Piper J-3 Cub during the 1930s. He grew up on a farm in Rockford, Wash., his son said.

“My dad once told me he landed in a farmer’s field, picked up my Uncle Sam and gave him a ride,” Anest said, sitting on his father’s porch in south Spokane Wednesday evening.

During World War II, Anest said, his father enlisted in the Army Air Force. His uncle went into the Navy.

Anest said his father was trained as a gunner on a B-17.

After the military, Anest spent more than 25 years flying for Pacific Gas Transmission, his son said.

The company, formed in 1961, has more than 600 miles of pipeline stretching from the Canadian border into Idaho.

Anest said his father would fly the pipeline and check it for leaks. He also would take company executives and workers where they needed to go. The neighbor said Anest retired from Pacific Gas Transmission about 10-years ago.

In the 1960s, he also flew the mail between Lewiston and Spokane and worked as a crop duster in the Palouse.

Among Anest’s fondest memories of his father are their hunting trips to Idaho, where they would land at rustic landing strips.

In the late 1980s, Anest said, he took a flying lesson from his dad. Together, they flew in a tandem seat Piper PA-12 that his father kept at Felts Field. They spoke to each other through headsets. Anest sat in the front, his dad was in the back.

“Just knowing that he was behind me, guiding me, telling me what I’m doing right and doing wrong,” Anest said. “I will always feel comfortable hearing his voice through that head-set.”