MYNORTHWEST NEWS

Search crews recover victims from two airplane crashes in north Cascades

Jul 16, 2015, 8:06 AM | Updated: 8:43 am

Leland and Sharon Bowman of Montana died in a July 11 airplane crash in the north Cascades. (WSDOT)...

Leland and Sharon Bowman of Montana died in a July 11 airplane crash in the north Cascades. (WSDOT)

(WSDOT)

Search crews have managed to retrieve four victims from two separate airplane crashes in the north Cascades region.

“I can’t recall when we’ve had a case before, when we’ve had two planes that have gone down on the same day,” Whatcom County Sheriff Bill Elfo told KING 5.

“The other plane crashed outside of Whatcom County, but certainly in the same, general north Cascades area,” he said.

The bodies of Leland and Sharon Bowman of Montana were recovered Wednesday from Skagit County. They were traveling to Bellingham from Montana with their step-granddaughter Autumn Veatch.

Veatch survived the crash and walked down from the mountainous region to get help.

Search crews were also able to reach a second airplane that crashed into a cliff side not far from the Bowman’s crash site. The tail numbers at that site match that of an airplane reported missing from Minnesota that was headed to Orcas Island.

The two victims in that crash were recovered and are believed to be Robert and Gail Nevalainen of Minnesota.

Both airplanes crashed into the Cascades on the evening of July 11, during the same cloudy conditions.

Information reported by the Associated Press contributed to this story

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