Shock wave…

I don't know that I like that …..

By NANCY KIMBALL

The Daily Inter Lake

Phil Anderson's mom got three notices while her son was fighting in Vietnam.

All three reported him dead, a war casualty after being captured by the Viet Cong. When he was captured a fourth time, he walked out of it once again.

"I was like the proverbial bad penny," Anderson said over a cup of coffee at Sykes' Restaurant Thursday noon. "I kept showing up."

He has an inkling of how the families of two survivors from Monday's small-plane crash might be feeling today.

"Those families are going through hell," he said, including relatives of the remaining three who did not survive.

Jodee Hogg and Matthew Ramige were presumed dead after a plane contracted by the U.S. Forest Service crashed, with its five passengers, into Mount Liebig northwest of Essex.

Rescuers on Tuesday afternoon recovered the body of Ken Good from the wreckage. Families were notified that the other four died, as well.

But mourning was turned to a strange mixture of joy and puzzlement when an injured Hogg and Ramige hiked out of the wilderness on their own before being spotted along U.S. 2 Wednesday afternoon.

As details about the crash and rescue efforts were filtering out Thursday, it was the talk of the town in Kalispell.

At coffee shops, in health clubs and on the street, people were talking about the plane crash and the improbable tale of tragedy and survival.

"I think it's a little surprising they didn't check who should be on the plane," Anderson said of rescuers who called off Tuesday's search after finding the devastated wreckage.

"They used weather for an excuse," Patti McIlhargey said. "It sure doesn't give me much hope if I'm up there.

"It was only a rain storm. A little Montana rain storm."

According to Anderson, "They didn't assume anybody could live through that. I think it's inexcusable."

"They pride themselves in their ability to go and rescue people, and they do - they do it for tourists who come to the valley," McIlhargey said.

"If you're up there on the mountain and needing to get someone down, don't you at least go look?" she asked. "They didn't go look until the next day."

Anderson and McIlhargey both questioned whether thorough search protocol was followed and the wisdom of declaring deaths before confirming a body count.

"It shouldn't have happened," Anderson said.

But Wayne Marvin isn't so sure the outcome could have been any different.

"The deputy looked at the plane and couldn't see how the hell anyone could live through that," Marvin said as he waited for his lunch.

His buddy Allan Heuscher agreed.

"I think they should have stayed up there and looked a little harder, though," Heuscher added. Searchers reportedly spent two hours on the scene before a storm moved in.

"I think there'll be something said about it," Marvin acknowledged. "But I don't know what in the hell can be done now."

Bob Lingle said law enforcement and Forest Service officials should be glad they don't have to answer to him.

"That's the stupidest thing," Lingle said as he and his wife lingered at a Sykes' table before heading off for an appointment.

"Why did they leave those people up there on the mountain? If they pulled out a body and found three seat belts open, that should have been their first clue."

Ardith Lingle just shook her head.

"I don't think they should have said anything [about fatalities] until they knew for sure," she said. "They should have confirmed it."

Closer inspection of the plane wreckage was called for, Bob Lingle insisted.

"Four burned bodies - that was just an assumption they never should have made," he said. "It kills me that they did that, assumed they all were dead and let those two walk out.

"They were physically there and on the ground, so why the hell didn't they look farther? They evidently had to know, they had to see that one body got out of the plane and got so far away from it."

Ardith Lingle agreed there was a breakdown in search protocol, but said her heart is breaking for relatives of the victims.

"It's got to be terrible for the families," she said. "I can't imagine what they are going through."

Jay Wolfe of Bigfork was very critical Thursday. He said the story is tragic for the families and embarrassing for the community.

"I'm not trying to hang anybody," he said, "but we fly you up there to do a job and you didn't do it.

It could not have been that difficult to count five victims at the crash site before saying there were no survivors, Wolfe said.

"Those poor families…"

Balancing that was a phone message awaiting Sheriff Jim Dupont Thursday morning from a man who praised the services the sheriff's office has provided to residents through the years.

At Montana Coffee Traders, the lunch crowd had pretty much cleared out, but Anna Marie Bailey and Deanna Laurber still were at their window-side table.

"I think it's a miracle they're alive," Bailey said of Hogg and Ramige. "But I'm wondering about the accountability."

Laurber recalls Monday afternoon clearly - the quick thunderstorm that passed over the area, then the radio announcement an hour later of a plane crash in the mountains.

"First we heard that they all were killed in a fiery wreck and then two lived through it," Laurber said as she tried to play out the search efforts in her mind. "I guess if it were raining real hard, there may not have been footprints."

Searchers have reported they found no footprints leading away from the crash site Tuesday afternoon.

Well aware that there will be a long process of questioning protocol and pointing fingers, Bailey asked, "Who's job is on the line?" But she looked at the up side, too.

"My gut reaction is that it's a miracle," she added.

"It's a hidden blessing," Laurber said of the survivors.

"If it had been my son or daughter, I would have just been so happy they came back."

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com