Pilot Survives Crop-Duster Crash Man Suffered Fractured Leg, Remembers Nothing About Crash

A Colfax pilot is in stable condition after his crop-duster crashed into a field after clipping a power line.

Myron Forstrom, 57, fractured his leg and suffered multiple bruises and small head lacerations in the Monday morning crash, according to Whitman Community Hospital officials.

“He’s a very lucky gentleman,” nursing supervisor Anna Repp said.

Forstrom was spraying herbicide over spring crops east of Dusty when his plane clipped power lines and went down in a field around 9:30 a.m. near a farm.

Dick Appel, 63, runs about 150 head of ewes on the farm. He and his son had been out working with the sheep as Forstrom made several passes overhead. When they no longer heard the plane, the two decided to investigate.

“We went around the barn and he had smacked into the hillside,” Appel said.

Appel and his son went to their garage to get their car but were unable to open the garage doors because the plane’s impact had tripped a breaker on the line, disabling power.

When they reached the plane, Forstrom had crawled out and was coherent despite his injuries. But he didn’t remember crashing.

“He said `What am I doing here? How’d I get here?” Appel said. “He didn’t recall anything about the wreck.”

Appel covered Forstrom with a tarp to keep him warm while medics responded from Dusty, Endicott and Colfax.

Forstrom said it was his first accident after more than 20,000 hours of flying and 30 years experience.

The plane was reported to be carrying Bronate and Achieve, broadleaf weed sprays, but no spillage of the herbicides was observed, according to Whitman County Sheriff’s Sgt. Patrick Kelley. There was a small fuel spill.

The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board have been notified. Power was restored to the area later in the day by Inland Power from Spokane.