The U.S. Forest Service announced Wednesday that it will wait at least until spring to retrieve the wreckage of a Battle Ground man’s plane that crashed last month on Mount Hood.
George Regis, 63, was the sole occupant of the 1975 Rockwell Commander 112A — a fixed-wing, single-engine aircraft — that crashed near Eliot Glacier on the north side of the mountain in late January. His plane took off Jan. 25 from Grove Field Airport in Camas and was thought to be heading toward Arizona. However, Regis’ wife reported him missing Jan. 28, and his downed plane was located the next day.
The man’s body was recovered the day after the plane was found. Since then, officials for the Mount Hood National Forest, Hood River County, Ore., Sheriff’s Office, National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration have coordinated the response to the crash, with the U.S. Forest Service taking the lead on recovery of the wreckage.
But the glacier’s height and snow-covered terrain have stalled recovery efforts, according to a press release from the U.S. Forest Service.
