Pilot’s humor intact after two days in wild
BOISE – The light-plane pilot who crashed into a steep, forested ravine in north-central Idaho pulled himself out, crawled away from the wreck and waited in the cold for two days before rescuers were able to find him.
Christine Herr, wife of 54-year-old Paul C. Herr, of Pasco, said her husband suffered a broken vertebra and a broken jaw when his plane’s engine failed and he flew into a canyon on Monday.
“He tried to walk, he tried to crawl out, but he couldn’t get much of anywhere,” Herr said Thursday in a telephone interview. “He has cuts on face, but he looks great to me.”
Contrary to earlier reports from family friends, he didn’t spend the two days strapped into his seat, she said.
Her husband’s sense of humor remained intact – even with his jaw wired shut.
“He said, ‘I guess I’m going on a crash diet,’ ” she recounted. He remained hospitalized at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in Lewiston and she was staying in family quarters at the hospital.
Searchers with the Idaho Transportation Department, the Idaho County sheriff’s office and the U.S. Forest Service had been looking for Herr and the single-engine Piper 180 since it disappeared from ground control radar Monday afternoon as he was flying from Jackson, Wyo., headed to Pasco.
Low clouds and rain prevented an airborne search Tuesday but the wreckage was spotted just before noon Wednesday.
Searchers found the crash site about 20 miles east of Kooskia with the help of an emergency signal broadcast from the downed plane, said Neal Johnson, a medic with the North Idaho Backcountry Medical Rescue Team of Orofino.
“We picked up a faint ELT (emergency locater transmitter) signal on top of the ridge, and we just kept messing around, flying above that spot until the signal got stronger,” Johnson said.
But in the dense stands of timber, there was still nothing to see. No missing treetops, nothing, he said. “We flew directly over … several times, but there was no indication a plane had gone down,” he continued. Finally, they spotted a “rib” out of one of the wings – a shiny metal stick about 3 feet long – stuck in the top of a tree.
The helicopter landed in a clearing about a quarter-mile away, and Johnson hiked back to the crash site with several other rescuers.
“We took nominal gear because we assumed we were going to find a body,” he said. “But when we hiked to the plane, there was nobody inside. We found him about 100 or 150 feet below, near the creek.”
Johnson said Herr was suffering from hypothermia, but was awake and responsive. In addition to the rain, overnight temperatures in the area had dipped into the low 40s.
The 54-year-old pool contractor’s son, also named Paul and also from Pasco, said his mother and father had been in Ankeny, Iowa, to attend a family graduation. His mother had flown home on a commercial flight.
“We’re doing really good. We’re extremely ecstatic,” the son said in a telephone interview. “He’s looking really good for how bad the accident was.”
Christine Herr said the past few days have been a deeply religious experience.
“My God and Savior the Lord Jesus Christ was watching over Paul,” she said. “If his great mercy and grace has allowed me to have my husband a while longer, then our God is an awesome God.”
The elder Herr was expected to remain at the Lewiston hospital for another week.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the crash.