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Crash left four local children parentless photo by Drew Fleming Scott Boile, an inspector with Continental Motors, on Thursday photographs the crash scene near Pilot Rock. Three people died in the Wednesday crash, including an Ashland couple. Continental manufactured the Beech 58 Baron's two engines. By DANI DODGE ASHLAND - Four young children lost their parents and grandfather when a small private plane crashed into a mountainside about a mile northeast of Pilot Rock. Thursday, the Jackson County Sheriff's Department identified the deceased as Dean "Dino" Ray Beckett Jr., 34, and Kara Elaine Jeffries-Beckett, 35, both of Ashland; and Dean Ray Beckett Sr., 62, of Macdoel, Calif. The younger Becketts were parents of four children, three who attend Briscoe Elementary School in Ashland, and a fourth who is a toddler. "Everyone is numb," said Briscoe Principal Jeff Schlecht. "They were absolutely terrific parents and people. "This is a tragic, tragic thing." After a 7 a.m. weather check, the Becketts took off from Ashland's airport about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday in a twin-engine Beech 58 Baron owned and piloted by Beckett Sr. Clouds shrouded the Siskiyou Mountains to the south, but Beckett Sr. was an experienced pilot, "no stranger to flying in foul weather," said Mike Fergus, the Federal Aviation Administration's Northwest region public affairs officer. They were headed to the family's Siskiyou County Christmas tree ranch in Macdoel and then on to Scottsdale, Ariz., for business. But within minutes, the plane flew into the side of a forested mountain, just above an unpaved Bureau of Land Management road. The plane hit some large tree stumps with such an impact that it crumpled like a ball of tinfoil. One wing twisted underneath the plane while an engine was knocked loose and rolled 200 feet down the steep hill. "They died instantly," said Chief Deputy Medical Examiner Spencer Smith. "On all three, the cause of death is listed as massive blunt trauma." On initial investigation Thursday, there didn't seem to be any crucial missing pieces to the plane, said Kurt Anderson, an investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board. He declined to speculate on the cause of the crash, saying he and other investigators were simply gathering evidence for a report that would be issued in a few months. He said after the initial investigation, he expected to move the plane to an FAA hangar in Independence. "Sometimes we do all the work here, but because there's so much damage we will do some down there," Anderson said. "We are getting history on the aircraft and its maintenance and the pilot and his training." Fergus noted: "It's a great mystery when you take an experienced pilot like that and he slams into a mountain." At about 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, a Bureau of Land Management employee who was checking cattle gates spotted the plane. At first, he thought it was old wreckage. "Then he found what he didn't want to find," said Jay Darby, a search and rescue worker. Bodies. Children's clothes, papers and metal debris were strewn up and down the mountain in an area approximately 40 by 100 yards. After spotting the children's clothing, nine search and rescue volunteers as well as a number of sheriff's deputies scoured the mountain desperately for children who may have been thrown from the plane. "The children's clothing shook them up quite a bit," said Jackson County Sheriff Bob Kennedy. "Until we found that the children were indeed accounted for." The older children were in class at Briscoe Wednesday and the younger one was with her grandmother, Donna Beckett. After school, they were all with their grandmother. When the Becketts didn't show up at their Christmas tree farm as scheduled, an employee got worried. After making calls and traveling to Oregon, he discovered that the three Becketts had died in the crash. He told Donna Beckett before the deputies got there, said sheriff's Capt. Ed Mayer. Donna Beckett then told her grandchildren, Schlecht said. Kara, Beckett Jr. and Sr. were all involved in the prosperous third-generation Christmas tree farm and wreath-making business. They ran the farm with an environmental consciousness, said Rick Landt, an environmental planner and Ashland parks commissioner. "It was a Christmas tree farm with a twist," he said. "Instead of just chopping the tree down, they would leave the root system intact and grow more trees from the roots - it's much more environmentally sound." It was only one of several businesses Beckett Sr. had been involved in as an entrepreneur, friends said. The wreaths they made had been featured in major magazines, but still they gave some to the elementary school each year, said Principal Schlecht. When the school needed rocks for a rock garden, they contributed a load of river rock, Schlecht added. "That's just the kind of people they were," he said. Even though she was intimately involved in the business, Kara stayed home as much as she could and was a "mother hen" for the entire neighborhood, Landt said. "People said 'Is she running a day care center?' " said neighbor Lorrine Winger. "She always had a yard and a home full of kids. "It was a very happy home." And she was very protective. "She never let the kids walk to school alone," Winger said. "She always walked to school with them, even if it meant pushing the stroller." Beckett Jr. was the hardworking family-oriented father with a great sense of humor, and Kara was the scholar who was always willing to take care of anyone's kids in a pinch, said her friend, Shelley Austin. Austin said she marveled at Kara's maturity and ability to successfully juggle a career, a big family, and still be there for everyone else. "She would be having a conversation with an adult, dealing with six kids and not skip a beat," Austin said. "Everyone felt attended to and she remained totally calm. "The children are all well behaved, bright, and cute as buttons." The children remain with their grandmother. "That grandma is I'm sure so overwhelmed," Schlecht said. "I just hope she will allow us to reach out to her and support her however we can." So far, no services have been announced, but county officials said Litwiller-Simonsen Funeral Home in Ashland is expected to make the arrangements. Reach reporter Dani Dodge at 776-4471, or e-mail [email protected] . Reporters Tony Boom and Jill Briskey contributed to this story Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.