Plane crash in remote central Oregon leaves ‘no survivors,’ authorities say
(Update: Initial FAA report, plane information and photo)
Plane apparently struck, knocked down 'static wire' that carries no power, BPA says
MADRAS, Ore. (KTVZ) – A small plane traveling from an airport south of Portland to Idaho struck a wire atop a 500-kilovolt power line and crashed Sunday afternoon in a remote area about five miles southeast of Madras, killing the pilot, authorities said Monday.
Frontier Regional 911 dispatchers received the report of a plane crash around 7:40 p.m. Sunday and first responders including Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies, Fire & EMS and Madras Police were immediately dispatched.
It took some time to reach the crash site, 5 1/2 miles southeast of Madras and south of the Deer Ridge Correctional Institution.
During the initial investigation, deputies were able to determine the plane left Aurora State Airport en route to Idaho, Sheriff Jason Pollock said.
“Due to the extent of the crash, there were no survivors,” the sheriff said in an online posting early Monday.
An initial Federal Aviation Administration report indicates the plane, a Piper PA-32, also known as a Cherokee Six, was destroyed and had one person, the pilot, aboard.
The FAA registration for the plane shows it was manufactured in 1965, issued its latest airworthiness certificate in February of 2023 and registered to David Hagerty of Caldwell, Idaho.
Pollock said more details will be released after the identities are confirmed and family notified.
The sheriff said the National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA will conduct “a lengthy investigation” into the cause of the crash.
The transmission line outage began shortly after 3 p.m., BPA Media Relations Specialist Kevin Wingert said. A few minutes later, after the line “tested bad and would not reclose,” BPA scrambled a crew to patrol the line, find the source of the outage and repair it, if possible.
Around 6 p.m., the crew located a downed “static wire” southeast of Madras and began assessing what material might be needed for repairs, Wingert said.
Wingert explained that static wires run from one the top of one transmission tower to another, to protect transmission lines from potential lightning strikes, but they don’t carry any power themselves.
“The static wire, when cut, fell into our transmission lines, resulting in the actual outage,” Wingert said.
Once the problem was found, repair work was tentatively scheduled for Monday morning, since the power had been rerouted and the outage was not affecting customers directly.
Around 7:30 p.m., as the BPA crew left the area, “they discovered what appeared to be a downed aircraft that apparently had struck the static wire,” the BPA representative said. “Our crew immediately contacted emergency services and backed out of the area to allow emergency responders to do their work.”
The transmission line outage did not lead to any customer outages, Wingert said. The BPA line segment runs between the John Day Dam and the Grizzly Substation, south-southeast of Madras.
“Our electric grid is pretty robust, and we’ve been able to reroute power without impacts on our utilities whom we provide service,” he explained.
Winds at the Madras Municipal Airport were gusting to 30-40 mph out of the south-southwest for much of the afternoon.
