Crash Victims Chasing Prizes -- Rigorous Rodeo Slate Put Cowboys In Plane

The four rodeo performers killed in Monday's plane crash on Mount Rainier were chasing the riches of ``Cowboy Christmas,'' a 10-day stretch in which a competitor may hit a dozen shows and make 20 percent of his annual earnings.

``It's a very hectic time for them, a very hectic traveling schedule,'' Gavin Ehringer, spokesman for the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association said of the period between June 30 and July 9.

The bodies of the four cowboys and their pilot were retrieved from the wreckage yesterday afternoon and were turned over to the Pierce County medical examiner.

Debra Ecknote of the National Transportation Safety Board said it could be months before the cause of the accident is determined.

The cowboys had competed in a rodeo Monday morning near Portland and were on route to the finals of a Canadian event 900 miles away at 6:30 that night.

At 1 p.m. the single-engine Cessna 210, flown by Pendleton, Ore., pilot Harold R. Bob Card, slammed into the south side of the 14,100-foot mountain at the 12,500-foot level.

Mitch Barker, spokesperson for the Federal Aviation Administration said the Air Route Traffic Control Center in Auburn had warned the pilot he was fast approaching the mountain just minutes before the crash.

``He was asked if he could see the mountain and he said no, but he would try to go around the west side,'' said Barker. ``Then about 10 miles from it, he turned toward the mountain. The controller tried several times to contact him and have him turn but could not get acknowledgement until moments before the crash.''

The Pierce County medical examiner's officer identified the victims as Dave P. Smith, 31, College Place, Walla Walla County; David Bowen, 27, Yoakum, Texas; Randy Dierlam, 29, Seadrift, Texas; Mike Curran, 25, Hermiston, Ore., and Card, 50.

Smith, 31, was well-acquainted with the rigors of traveling the rodeo circuit.

``He wore out a pickup truck a year and probably went - driving or flying - to more than 100 rodeos a year,'' said alongtime friend, Curtis Tarwater of WallaWalla.

Tarwater, rodeo coach at Walla Walla Community College, said Smith's death ``was a shock to me . . . Such a fine young man, really well liked in our valley.''

Smith, a champion calf roper, made more than $30,000 in rodeo prize money last year, and had career earnings of $250,000. In 1988, he was ranked fourth in world calf-roping standings.

In the summer of 1988, just before Smith hit the road for another round on the rodeo circuit, he told a reporter he didn't plan to stay with the routine for many more years.

``The schedule isn't as bad for me as it is for some . . . '' he said, ``But a guy needs to settle down eventually and try to get something going.''

He and his wife, Teresa, have an infant son, Jade.

Smith was born and raised in Brewster, Okanogan County. After graduating from high school, he moved to Spokane for a year and then to the Walla Walla area.

His enthusiasm for rodeo developed while he was a student at Walla Walla Community College in the late 1970s. While there, he won a national intercollegiate calf-roping championship.

Smith once said the horse deserves 75 percent of the credit in the calf-roping event. He did most of his traveling by truck, pulling a favorite horse in a trailer.

But during the hectic days of early July, rodeo cowboys often fly between events and compete on leased horses in exchange for a share of their prize money.

Yesterday's retrieval effort was hampered by malfunctioning equipment in a Fort Lewis helicopter, but the 12 rescuers were evacuated unharmed.

Ecknote, in charge of investigating the cause of the crash, said the terrain and icy conditions on the glacier allowed only an experienced mountain climber to get close to the plane.

Barker said the pilot chose not to file a instrument flight plan with the FAA. The plan would have guided him by preassigned coordinates and kept him on a narrowly defined path to the east of the mountain, even in inclement weather.

Card was experienced in using instrument readings, and his aircraft was likely equipped with the feature, officials said. Instead, he chose to fly under ``visual flight rules,'' meaning he was piloting by sight and expected to maintain three-mile visibility.

However, an aviation official who asked not to be identified said he believed the plane was swept up in the storm front that moved through the area Monday afternoon, dropping significant amounts of rain in the lowlands.

Brad Coleman, forecaster for the National Weather Service, said a satellite photo taken at the time of the accident showed Rainier was covered with clouds.

Barker said FAA records showed that just after takeoff Card asked for weather conditions at the destination, Penticton B.C., but not about the weather in between.

``He may have asked a private weather service, but he didn't request the information from us,'' said Barker.

The pilot asked the FAA center to put him on radar as he passed Mount St. Helens, about 10 minutes from Mount Rainier, said Barker.

Card was the owner of Aerowest Aviation in Pendleton the past five years. Company representatives said Card was a rodeo fan and did a lot of work shuttling cowboys to events.

The men were flying to Penticton, B.C. where they were to clear customs and refuel the plane before heading to the rodeo in Ponoka. All four of the men were returning to compete in the finals, for which they qualified before attending the Portland-area rodeo.

As their names were called at the competition that night, rodeo officials began to fear the worst.

``We knew they were coming by plane and we knew they were late,'' said Gary Harbin, president of the Ponoka Stampede Association. The possibility of a plane crash ``was in the back of everybody's mind, but no one said anything,'' he said.

Harbin said his fears were confirmed late in the evening as the competition ended. First came the news that the plane had crashed and later came the report that there were no survivors.

``This hurts bad,'' he said. ``They were good men, good young cowboys.''