PORTLAND, Ore. — The pilot of a small plane that crashed on a flight from Oregon’s Willamette Valley to southwest Washington has been positively identified as a 41-year-old Vancouver, Washington man.
The Oregonian reported that Linn County Sheriff Bruce Riley said Thursday the state medical examiner used dental records to identify Lee Cheshire Leslie III.
State medical examiner Dr. Karen Gunson has said Leslie died of blunt force trauma.
The single-engine Piper PA-28 Cherokee disappeared from radar late on the afternoon of April 21 after taking off from Hobby Field Airport in Creswell, south of Eugene, for a 130-mile flight north to Pearson Air Park in Vancouver.
Volunteers with the Oregon Wing of the Civil Air Patrol searched for the plane for four days.
On April 24, an Oregon Army National Guard helicopter spotted the crash site on Mount Tom in southern Linn County. That’s about 20 miles north of the Creswell airport.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.