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Stunned guests view accident Rogue wilderness plane crash kills pilot's father-in-law By PAUL FATTIG Medford resident Alicia Watson had just enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at the Half Moon Bar Lodge on the wild section of the lower Rogue River before stepping outside to watch a small plane descend on the nearby landing strip Sunday morning. But Watson, 40, who was joined by a dozen other guests, felt something was wrong. "After he circled high once, he went back behind the mountain - I could hear him coming but I couldn't see him," she said. "I knew he was too low. "It was like something from the forest just reached out and grabbed him," she said. "You could hear the woods coming alive. Branches breaking, the engine roaring. We all freaked out." Watson had just witnessed the airplane crash that killed passenger Hillery Dean Gargile, 47, of Trinity Center, Calif., and injured pilot Billy Joe Pyatt, 27, of Folsom, Calif. Gargile was Pyatt's father-in-law. The accident came five days after another small plane crashed near Pilot Rock southeast of Ashland, killing the pilot and his son and daughter-in-law, an Ashland couple. Named for a deep bend in the river, Half Moon Bar is roughly 40 air miles northwest of Grants Pass in the Wild Rogue Wilderness. Pyatt was on his second approach in an attempt to land the single-engine rented Cessna 182 on the strip at about 9 a.m. Sunday when the aircraft crashed, according to Ted Heath, marine deputy for the Curry County Sheriff's Department. After coming in too high the first time around, the pilot was again too high on his second approach, over-corrected and slammed into the trees, Heath said. "We all started running down the runway," Watson said, noting there were two emergency medical technicians and a nurse in the group. The pilot had to be cut out of the aircraft, she said. "I took my jacket off and put it on him," she said. "I kept talking to him. He was praying for his father-in-law." Unfortunately, his father-in-law and his seat were ejected from the aircraft, which Watson described as "obliterated." Gargile died at the scene from injuries suffered in the crash, Heath said. Pyatt was treated for a shoulder injury at Curry General Hospital in Gold Beach, he added. "The whole thing was unbelievable," said Watson, a lab assistant at a Medford-area pharmacy who had been joined at the lodge by her sister Val deBoer and her sister's husband, Dan, both of Portland. "I kept thinking this isn't happening," she added. "It's something I'll never forget." Half Moon Bar Lodge, one of four in the 36,000-acre wilderness, is co-owned by Bruce Wassom, president of Medford-based Jetcraft Boats. While expressing sympathy for those involved in the crash, Wassom, who arrived at the accident 10 minutes after it happened, said the landing strip isn't a place for novice pilots. Although level and 1,350 feet long, it is located in rugged mountain terrain, he noted. "You should be an experienced backcountry pilot when you try to land at Half Moon Bar," he said, adding that goes for any remote landing strip. Yet experienced bush pilots have little problem with the strip, he said, noting that 17 small planes dropped in at the site over Labor Day weekend. "We've got eight or 10 pilots from Medford who fly in there a lot," he said, adding, "But the first time you drop down in that canyon, you'd better have a lot of experience." It's unknown how many hours have been logged by Pyatt. A Federal Aviation Administration inspector told Wassom that the pilot had stalled the plane on his second approach, causing the accident. Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.