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Associated PressA medical technician and rescue workers hike to the plane crash site in Beartown State Forest in Monterey yesterday.I Mane crash in Monterey leaves 4 deadCRASH from A12,100-foot-high mountain in the Beartown Mountain State Forest that is nearly inaccessible in the winter, according to Monterey Police Chief Gareth Baekhaus.“That part of Beartown is very remote. said Baekhaus. There is a dirt access road. Mount Wilcox Hoad, that runs about 500 yards north of the crash site, said Baekhaus, but the plane crashed in an area where there was 3 1/2 to 4 feet of snow in a heavily wooded area.The plane hit the side of the mountain at about the 1,700-foot mark, according to police.The search was hampered during the night and day by high, buffeting winds and extreme cold.The search ended at 1 p.m. yesterday. when the crew from a New York State Police helicopter spotted the wreckage. They were directed to the vicinity by a civilian caller, said McGovern. Police said that some residents of the area reported hearing a crashing noise between 8:30 and 9 p.m. Whether that was related to the plane, police said, was unknown.At this point, exactly when the plane went down is one of those questions we don’t have an answer to, said McGovern.Two Civil Air Patrol pilots whose plane was being checked at the Great Barrington Airport around noon said the search conditions were extremely difficult because heavy fir trees made it difficult to see the ground in some spots, and the white plane was not easily spotted in the snow.Sheffield police sent searchers out yesterday morning in the Sheffield area, said McGovern, but they were recalled after an hour of searching.“After about an hour, said McGovern, they were reporting that they were feeling the effects of the extreme cold, including symptoms for hypothermia.Toman said the fuselage of the plane was intact, but at least one of the victims had to be removed with the help of a Jaws of Life device, as a portion of the plane was crushed by the impact.Toman said the plane went down in a heavily wooded area, but it seemed to him that thepilot did the best he could have done to save lives.”Helicopter crews lifted the first three survivors, the three boys, directly out of the crash site, and touched down at the Great Barrington Airport. Ambulance crews evaluated them there and prepared them for the flight to Albany Medical Center.The fourth victim, Ron Ferris, was brought out of the woods at 4:30 p.m. yesterday, and was taken by ambulance to Great Barrington Airport. A helicopter was waiting to take the victim on to Albany, but the victim suffered a heart attack and was immediately taken to Fairview Hospital, where he died last night.The Piper Cherokee Six, a large model single-engine plane owned and piloted by Ferris, transmitted an emergency satellite signal, or beacon, at 11:50 p.m. Sunday. It had been declared missing several hours before that, at about 6:50 p.m., after the pilot reported icing on his wings.The emergency signal, first detected by a satellite communications center in Langley, Va., and relayed to Massachusetts authorities, prompted the mobilization of a massive air and ground search in the tri-state region, starting at around 3 a.m.But because of the high winds, said McGovern, helicopters were unable to begin the search until about 12:30 p.m. Monday.According to the Keene (N.H) Sentinel, Ronald Ferris and his wife were co-owners of FerrisWheels, a used car dealership in Swanzey, and were known to many Keene area residents. They had recently announced plans to expand their business.When the plane was first spotted yesterday — initially the helicopter crews reported one survivor outside, and another inside the plane — the search quickly became a rescue effort. Emergency dispatchers called in squadrons of emergency personnel to help gain access to the site through deep snow.The helicopter was unable to land near the plane, and paramedics were lowered from the air to the plane.At 1:42, a radio call reported that a paramedic was with the 2-year-old.”Radio calls were put out for snowmobiles, backboards, warm clothes, extraction equipment, pry bars, anything you can get. A female dispatcher’s voice calmly repeated the word, “expedite.” The Great Barrington Fire Department delivered its equipment to a helicopter waiting at the airport. The helicopter picked it up and took off again for the crash site.Jim Peters, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration,said the Ferris family’s flight plan began Sunday, with a departure from Lakeland. Fla. They stopped in Silver City, N.C., and were then scheduled to fly on to Utica, N.Y., said Peters.When the plane passed through the Harrisburg. Pa., area, at 5:08 p.m., Ferris notified authorities that he was changing his destination to Keene. Then, when he was 40 miles north of Stewart International Airport in Newburgh, N.Y., Ferris asked for a change in his flight plan, this time to Barnes Municipal Airport in Westfield.His last request, and last radio communication, came at 6:50 p.m.Peters said that after the plane's emergency signal was detected yesterday morning, FAA authorities evaluated its radar records, and found that Ferris’ plan was last tracked at 10 miles south of the Great Barrington Airport, heading north-northeast at 2,200 feet, a position that suggested he might have been trying to land.Maj. William Duffey, a spokesman for the U.S. Air Force Civil Air Patrol at Westover Air Force Base, said his counterpart based in Taunton was the first to receive the alert from Langley.The satellite picks up emergency signals by latitude and longitude. but pinpointing the precise spot of a plane crash is nearly impossible, he said.“Emergency signals are very susceptible to the environment, mountains, trees,” he said. We were looking at a huge area of Western Massachusetts, northwest Connecticut, New York state.”At the peak of the search, the Civil Air Patrol had five planes working methodically in grids around the region.At the same time, state police were conducting a parallel effort with helicopters and there were about 30 officers and civilians on the ground, said Toman.Because of the deaths and damage to the airplane, the National Transportation Safety Board will take over the investigation into the incident today. The Berkshire County district attorney’s office will also be on the scene, said McGovern.US OIL EXPRESSOil For Less
Newspaper Details
The Berkshire Eagle
Pittsfield, Massachusetts, US
Tue, Mar 04, 2003
Page 6
Full Page
Clipped by
Lenox L.
MA, USA 20 Oct 2023
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