Document text
Pilot, passenger walk away from plane crash near Hellgate Canyon By Mail Tribune staff Updated: May 31, 2022 04:58 PM A A First responders motor across the Rogue River at Ennis Riffle to a plane that made an emergency landing on the water Tuesday morning. [Rural Metro Fire photo] First responders motor across the Rogue River at Ennis Riffle to a plane that made an emergency landing on the water Tuesday morning. [Rural Metro Fire photo] Thanks in part to a rafting outfitter conducting rescue training on the Rogue River nearby, a pilot and passenger walked away from a plane crash into the Rogue River Tuesday morning in Josephine County. At about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, a single-engine aircraft reportedly started having engine trouble over Hellgate Canyon and glided to smooth waters above Ennis Riffle near Galice, according to information from the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office and Rural Metro Fire. Local rafting outfitter OARS happened to be conducting water training nearby and “jumped into action,” according to a post on Rural Metro Fire’s Facebook page. The raft team helped secure the plane to the riverbank, then shuttled the occupants, who were stranded on the opposite side of the river from a boat ramp, across the river to wait for rescuers. Both occupants of the plane were uninjured in the crash and were later cleared by first responders following medical evaluations on shore. With the assistance of a private boater who was on scene, Rural Metro firefighters deployed absorbent booms and pads downstream of the crash site “to capture what minimal fluid leaks might come from the wreckage,” the post said. After an evaluation by the Josephine County Sheriff's Office, National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration, extraction of the craft was turned over to the pilot.