Sport plane lands near Priest Rapids Dam

PRIEST RAPIDS DAM — You can’t be too careful in this age of worldwide terrorism. It can strike any place, any time.

So, on Tuesday of last week, law enforcement in this area scrambled when a plane made an unauthorized landing on a road near this dam and the Wanapum Tribal Village on the Yakima County side of the Columbia River.

I was coming out of Tiddaly Diddaly’s after lunch, at about 11:30, when I saw a sheriff’s cruiser speeding down Highway 243 toward Desert Aire. I lost sight of it before I got into my car, but I drove that way with my camera looking for an accident.

I had to be in Royal City by 12:30. So I didn’t look for long. I turned back in the other direction to get to my appointment on time. About halfway to Mattawa, Police Chief John Turley sped by in his cruiser. Just as I was getting to the roundabout, a State Patrol cruiser shot by.

Okay, I thought, this has got to be big. But I drove on to RC. I stopped at the Conoco/Subway shop and ran into a RC policeman who was calmly having his lunch. I asked if he knew anything about Desert Aire.

“You mean the plane landing on the highway?” he commented.

Oh no, I thought, I missed a spectacular crash, probably a loaded semi-truck and trailer smashing and trampling a Piper Cub.

I couldn’t get hold of the chief because he was “busy.” When I got back to Mattawa, though, I saw brand-new officer Jordan Miers.

“The pilot was going fishing,” he said.

Okay, I thought. And then I laughed.

But there had to be more to the story than that. So I called the chief Wednesday morning and got the scoop.

Alarmed about the plane landing near the Village and the Dam, the PUD called the Grant County Sheriff. Turley and the State Patrol picked up on the call and went to assist.

“The (pilot) was sitting on a rock ledge, dangling his feet, with his fishing pole in the water when I got there,” Turley said. “I asked him if he was looking for steelhead. He said no. He was looking for walleye. I told him I didn’t know about walleye, and I could see he wasn’t having any luck.”

All is well that ended well, but the pilot, from Des Moines, learned a valuable lesson.

He has a sport plane that he can land almost on a dime. This time he landed in a place where a populace and a public agency concerned about terrorism might ask questions or even shoot first.

According to Turley, the pilot was questioned thoroughly by law enforcement and PUD security before the red alert was called off.

It turned out the Pilot is well-known in the area. He’s landed at the Desert Aire Airport before.

“He’s sort of an eccentric,” Turley said.

The pilot was asked to land at the airport again the next he decides to go fishing.

He should get a bill for Sheriff, State Patrol and local COP service time as a reminder.