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Crews can't get to the downed craft on Mount McLoughlin; both inside are likely dead Recovery teams may have to wait until Saturday to try to reach the airplane that crashed on Mount McLoughlin early Monday. Rescuers said it was unlikely either Ed Dunlap or Monte Landon, the two Medford men aboard the downed Cessna 172, could have survived the impact. Nearly vertical rock cliffs and fresh snow on loose lava rock prevented rescue crews from approaching the crash site Tuesday. Removing the plane will require a heavy-lift helicopter, a ground team with mountain-rescue experience and favorable weather, said Lt. Dewey Patten of the Jackson County Sheriff's Office. Patten said a mountaineering team from Lane County was available today, but a helicopter couldn't be arranged. Bad weather was expected Thursday and Friday, making Saturday the first possible day for a recovery attempt. Tuesday morning, an Army National Guard helicopter crew spotted the plane's white tail on the mountain's snowy north face at about 8,700 feet. — — — — — — — — — Ed Dunlap — — — — — — — — Monte Landon — — People who know this mountain better than I do say that's the worst place that an airplane could have gone down, said Vern Cordier of Talent, who led Jackson County Search and Rescue volunteers on the mountain. Dunlap, 52, and Landon, 38, were returning from Boise, Idaho, when the plane's emergency locator beacon began transmitting. Family members called the Klamath County Sheriff's Department to report the plane was overdue. Sheriff Tim Evinger said he did not know which man was piloting the plane. Jackson County took over the search from Klamath County after the wreckage was found in Jackson County. If the approaching storm buries the wreckage too deeply, recovery efforts might have to be postponed until next spring, Cordier said. On the mountain, winter has set in already. We were in — or 4 inches of snow on the summit. Cordier said the light coating of snow made walking across steep lava fields extremely difficult. That stuff tips under you and you're constantly fighting for your balance, he said. You don't just go up, you have to climb over boulders, too. Some of the rocks are small; some are the size of cars. With — or 4 inches of snow, it's even more treacherous. Patten said mountaineers will have to rappel down a sheer cliff to the crash site and attach a line to the wreckage for a helicopter to lift it off the mountain. Lane County Search and Rescue has the nearest source of volunteers who have experience in mountain rescue and working with helicopters, Patten said. You've got to have somebody who knows how to sling the load, he said. The National Transportation Safety Board will examine the wreckage after it has been moved to a safe site. Dunlap and Landon were experienced pilots. Dunlap flew Boeing 747s for Northwest Airlines. Landon, who worked in the family's construction business, had hopes of landing a job as a commercial pilot, and had completed pilot training at Lane Community College. That's all he wanted to do ' just fly, said his brother, Marlon Landon. He had resumes out for work. Flying was Monte's first choice, said brother-in-law Dave Burke, and then he went into construction. Dunlap had flown helicopters in Vietnam before he turned to commercial aviation, and he had logged thousands of flight hours. An avid golfer, he recorded his first hole in one in 1999. The two men knew each other from the airport, Marlon Landon said, just from hanging out there. They went to go look at an airplane Ed was thinking about buying, he said. A cold front was moving through Southern Oregon as the plane approached Medford. Unstable air, clouds and showers of rain, sleet or snow could have created challenging flying conditions. The crash left family members searching for answers. What happened, we don't know, Marlon Landon said. You've got two guys who knew everything about flying.