Plane crash kills 2 in Jewel Basin
A Whitefish couple died in a plane crash Tuesday night on Mount Aeneas in the Jewel Basin Hiking Area east of Kalispell.
Martin White, 61, a dentist retired from Southern California, and his wife, Penelope "Penny" White, 54, were reportedly on their way to an air show in Dallas when they died.
Their Cessna 210 crashed minutes after leaving Glacier Park International Airport at 3:30 p.m. The Montana Aeronautics Division notified the Flathead County Sheriff's Office that the plane was missing from radar at about 3:40 p.m.
"There was no indication of any trouble," Sheriff Jim Dupont said. Pilot Penny White was in contact with the airport tower before the crash.
Dupont said he believes she was crossing the ridge of Mount Aeneas in clouds and hit a thunderstorm that "violently shook them up" and she lost control. She has instrument flight certification, which allows pilots to fly in poor visibility.
The plane's wings probably stalled, starting an intense spin, Dupont surmised. From an altitude of about 12,000 feet, the plane fell to about 6,100 feet within moments, he believes. It plummeted straight into the ground,
creating a crater about 6 feet deep and 10 feet wide, Dupont said.
"It went down very fast," Dupont said, and struck an eighth of a mile east of Birch Lake near Aeneas Lake.
North Valley Search and Rescue was dispatched to begin searching for the plane on Tuesday night.
Meanwhile, Dupont flew with Minuteman Aviation from West Glacier. From a helicopter, he spotted the burning wreckage of the plane at 7:30 p.m. The helicopter landed and Dupont was able to walk to the plane and determine there were no survivors.
Wednesday morning at about 9 a.m., Dupont returned on a Minuteman flight to the wreckage with search-and-rescue coordinator Tom Snyder and two members of North Valley Search and Rescue to recover the Whites' bodies.
"It went fine," Snyder said.
The wreckage remains at the crash site. The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash.
Investigators from the safety board were here just two weeks ago when a plane crashed at Glacier Park International Airport. Both people in that crash survived with minor injuries. That plane also was a Cessna 210.
The safety board conducts detailed investigations into plane crashes. It still has determined no official cause of a crash near Essex in September 2004 that killed three people and injured two on a Forest Service flight. Also undetermined is the cause of a crash in August that killed two men aboard a plane that crashed into a home in Kalispell.
Five other local men died in plane crashes outside the Flathead in 2004.
"The last year has been tragic in the valley for pilots," Dupont said.
A former pilot himself, he said his thoughts about Tuesday's crash are only speculation.
"I found no obvious reason" for the accident, he said. "A whole bunch of little things that string together," such as weather conditions, can often be blamed.
He notified Martin White's mother in Whitefish of the death Tuesday, and White's two sons are on their way to Montana from California and Arizona.
Dale Collins, a former brother-in-law of Martin White, said the Whites had moved to Whitefish from California about 10 or 15 years ago. Martin White was an experienced pilot who has flown for decades, Collins said. Penny White, also a private pilot, operated a business working on upholstery in airplanes.
Another family member said the couple led an active life in Montana, enjoying skiing, golfing, and traveling.
Reporter Chery Sabol may be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at csabol@dailyinterlake.com