ALFALFA — Central Oregon sheriff's officers say a single-engine light plane that lost power and attempted an emergency landing on a primitive road was doing fine until the landing gear hit a big clump of sagebrush. The plane flipped over and came to rest upside down but the three men on board climbed out unhurt.
Crook County Sheriff Jim Hensley says the Cessna Sky Wagon was en route to the Bend airport from Idaho when the engine lost power Friday.
The pilot and plane owner was identified as 37-year-old Timothy Turnbull. Also aboard were 40-year-old Jeffrey Stuermer and 37-year-old William Wheir. All are from Bend.
The plane went down south of the Powell Butte mountains about three miles north of the town of Alfalfa.
ALFALFA, Ore. -- Three Bend men on a flight home from Idaho escaped injury Friday afternoon when their small plane lost power and the pilot landed on an old road near Powell Butte, only to hit a clump of sagebrush that caused the plane to flip over, authorities said.
Crook and Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies were dispatched shortly before 2 p.m. to a reported plane crash south of the Powell Buttes and about three miles north of Alfalfa, said Crook County Sheriff Jim Hensley.
Deputies arrived to find the three men on the plane – pilot-owner Timothy Turnbull, 37, and passengers Jeffrey Stuermer, 40, and William Wheir, 37 – were not hurt, Hensley said.
The occupants said the Cessna Sky Wagon was en route from Idaho to the Bend Airport, flying at about 6,500 feet, when the engine lost power, Hensley said.
Turnbull told deputies he spotted an old road in the area, covered with juniper and sagebrush, and tried to land, the sheriff said.
The plane touched down and hand traveled about 300 feet as it slowed down when the landing gear hit a big clump of sagebrush, causing the plane to flip and come to a stop upside-down, Hensley said.
The three men were able to get out of the plane, he said, and the pilot called 911 to report the crash.
Hensley said the damage was not very major, but enough that the FAA was labeling it a crash. Most of the damage occurred when the plane overturned, he said, with damage to the tail and the struts under the wings, as well as dents all over the plane's exterior.
The crash-landing was being investigated by the sheriff’s office, Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board.
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