QUILCENE – A Lopez Island couple flying to California to visit family were killed when their small plane crashed Thursday on the northeast face of Mount Walker, officials said Friday.
The wreckage was found by Jefferson County deputies and state Department of Transportation officials along with searchers in a King County sheriff’s helicopter, said Tim Perry, Jefferson County undersheriff, on Friday.
The helicopter was used to recover the bodies from the rugged site at 2,000 feet late Friday afternoon, said Perry, who set up a command post at Jefferson County International Airport.
From there the helicopter, known as Guardian 1, departed and returned.
The bodies were taken to Kosec Funeral Home in Port Townsend, where arrangements were to be made.
Perry identified the victims as the plane’s registered owner, Wilburn O. Ingham, 77, and his wife, Norma Ingham, 64.
The plane was piloted by Norma Ingham, said Wilburn Ingham’s son-in-law, Steve McHan of Sonoma, Calif., who called his father-in-law “Bill.”
The couple had been married for about 27 or 28 years and had flown together often, McHan said on Saturday.
“Both of them were pilots and they have logged many hours together in their married life, but because of a heart condition, Bill had not opted to renew his pilot’s license,” McHan said
