Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Police find downed pilot near Gorst after two-hour search. Near Bremerton National Airport (KPWT), Bremerton, Washington.

BREMERTON — Police have located a pilot whose aircraft went down and crashed Tuesday night in the Bremerton Watershed.

Around midnight, officers found the man in the expansive 3,000-acre Watershed, an area west of Gorst. He was taken to Harrison Medical Center and treated for non-life threatening injuries, said Bremerton Police Lt. Pete Fisher.

Bremerton officers, with help from Kitsap County Sheriff's deputies, Kitsap County Search and Rescue volunenteers and crews from Bremerton Fire Department and South Kitsap Fire and Rescue, were aided by King County Sheriff's Office's Guardian One helicopter overhead in locating the man.

The search began when a 911 call around 10 p.m. told dispatchers of a "sputtering" plane that didn't sound like it was going to make it to Bremerton National Airport, according to Bremerton Police Sgt. Bill Endicott. Shortly thereafter, a man called 911 claiming to be a pilot of a plane that had gone down and was lodged in the trees, Endicott said.

Police mounted an initial search effort using lights and sirens in an attempt to see whether they were close to the downed pilot. Fisher declined to say how the man got out of the helicopter and to the ground. He was alone in the plane. His identity has not yet been released.

The crash is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, Fisher said.

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