A Cessna 208 Grand Caravan carrying nine skydivers and a pilot who were returning home to Washington from a weekend in Idaho crashed in the Cascade mountain range on Sunday night. Searchers have located the front half of the wreckage and said it’s unlikely that anyone survived. As of Tuesday morning, the tail section had not been located. Friends of the missing skydivers held out hope that they may have had time to bail out and parachute to safety. Caravans are the subject of an airworthiness directive relating to icing, and this flight may have encountered temperatures hovering around freezing with some light rain and heavy clouds, according to the National Weather Service, The Seattle Times reported.
The aircraft is owned by Kapowsin Air Sports, of Shelton, Wash., and had been rented to the group, most of whom were employees or clients of Skydive Snohomish, based at Harvey Field. Jessie Farrington, owner of Kapowsin, called authorities to report the aircraft was overdue when it failed to arrive on time. No distress calls from the aircraft were heard and no emergency locator transmitter signal was detected. Rescue crews located the wreck using radar information and a report from a hunter who heard a crash in the mountains.
