Plane Crash During RV Trip

We’ve been on the road for 6 months now. We’ve seen some interesting things, including “zombie” drug addicted people appearing out of the national forest in the middle of nowhere, but today will stick in our memories far longer.

My family and I were walking on the east side of the park, walking along a trail, when sheriffs and aid cars started pouring in. The entrance to the park includes an iron gate and toll booth. The park staff opened up the gates, allowing emergency services to pass without stopping, and the parade came in. Initially the police were driving 30-40mph through the park to pass the marina and reach the spit.

One emergency vehicle after another poured in, then personal vehicles of volunteer divers. Boats, jet skis, pontoons, all flowed into the park.

At first we weren’t sure what happened. Having our children with us, I felt the need to hurry back to our trailer in case it was a violent situation. My husband went to the lake without us to assess the situation. Back at the trailer I turned on the local scanner. I heard the words “plane crash.”

It didn’t make sense. We were walking around the lake and didn’t hear anything.

My husband came back without information. Now that I know the kids were safe I left them with my husband, grabbed my camera and went back to the lake.

By this time a crowd had started to form. The first woman I talked to happened to be family of the emergency staff. She told me a plane went down.

A man walked up to our group and shared another story. He was in the airport and witnessed the plane go down. He said the plane did one or two loops before nose diving into the water. His flight and all others were canceled immediately.

On the scanner I heard mention of the deployment of a parachute, but the plane was too close to the water for it to deploy properly.

We left before the recovery process was in full-swing. At the front of the park, at the check-in gate, all visitors were being turned away, even people on foot.

8 hours later now and no one has located the pilot. I sincerely pray for a miracle.