Two federal wildlife managers working on a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service aerial survey of migratory waterfowl were killed when their plane went down in Oregon on Sunday.
Pilot Ray Bentley, 52, an agency employee, and David Pitkin, 59, a contractor, were conducting a midwinter count of the birds and were headed back to Corvallis when the crash occurred.
About 50 people assisted in a search beginning Sunday evening, and the wreckage was found Monday morning.
Wind warnings were in effect Sunday, but the flight path reportedly was clear. The cause of the crash has not yet been determined, though the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are conducting an investigation of the single-engine Cessna registered to the Interior Department.
This is the first crash in the history of the survey program, which has been conducting aerial counts since the 1930s, according to a Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman (Bennett Hall, Corvallis Gazette-Times, Jan. 18). – EL