Fate Of Missing Airplane Baffles Canadian Searchers

An airplane carrying four Northwesterners that disappeared over Vancouver Island more than a week ago probably crashed into water or the thick forests that make up much of the island, authorities said.

The searchers "have done everything possible," said Capt. David Mansi of the Victoria Rescue Coordination Center. "This one . . . just disappeared."

Missing are pilot Don Barnhart of Tacoma and passengers Stephen Ham of Kent, Paul Ossowski of Federal Way and Leonard Eraker of Portland.

The men were returning to Washington June 19 after a four-day fishing trip but never made it to their destination. Their single-engine Piper Comanche left Port Hardy on Vancouver Island's north end about 1:30 p.m. and was to make a 90-minute, nonstop trip to Bellingham.

Mansi said air-traffic controllers at Port Hardy Airport were the last to have radio contact with the group. Rescue workers assumed the plane went down before flying over Comox, near the middle of Vancouver Island, and concentrated their efforts on the area between Port Hardy and Comox.

Rescue teams covered more than 20,000 square miles and used 800 hours of flight time, the coordination center reported. Up to 50 aircraft and vessels took part in the search, which has ended.

No signal from the plane's emergency electronic beacon has been received.

If the plane went down in water, it's possible the aircraft may never be found, Mansi said. If it disappeared into the dense forests that make up 90 percent of the largely unpopulated 12,408-square-mile island, the plane may remain hidden for months - even years, he said. Without a fire, it's not unusual for tall trees to bend back and keep a downed plane hidden from aerial view, he added.

"If it's in (those 200-foot) trees, someday a hiker will come across it," Mansi said.

Ossowski, Barnhart and Ham are engineers with Boeing's Defense & Space Group at the company's Kent plant. Eraker, who is Ham's step-uncle, is retired.

Boeing has made grief counselors available to the men's families and co-workers, said Boeing spokeswoman Anne Gose.

Despite hearing no news for 10 days, Eraker's wife, Hilde, remained hopeful yesterday that the men are alive. She said her 75-year-old husband, who participated in the D-Day Normandy invasion, is an experienced sportsman who is in good physical condition.

"I'm still very hopeful," she said. "I feel the men are alive and trying to come out. That's what's holding me up."