Diary of Carla Corbus

[05332480]

I am looking for any additional information available on the crash in California in 1967 which eventually took the lives of three people including Carla Corbus, a 16 year old whose diary became the focus of a Saturday Evening Post article. This accident had a lot to do with the requirement for ELTs in aircraft.

[sardak]

What additional information are you looking for? Here is a previous thread on this topic with input from a California Wing member: http://captalk.net/index.php?topic=5564.msg108616#msg108616

For those unfamiliar with the incident, a family of three was flying from Oregon to California when the plane crashed in the Trinity Alps region of northern California. All three survived and the pilot/father hiked out for help. Mom and the step-daughter (Carla) kept a diary - for 54 days, noting the passage of search aircraft. The plane crashed on March 11, a hunter found the wreckage with the remains of the two who stayed on October 1 and the father's remains were found a half mile from the crash site almost two years later. The Saturday Evening Post article appeared before the remains of the father (Al Oien) were found.

The story was an impetus for the passage of ELT laws, but studies of equipping civilian aircraft with locator beacons started at the end of WW2. The FAA performed its first studies of ELTs in 1963 and the first FAA Advisory Circular on ELTs was published in January 1964. AOPA's concerns started shortly afterwards. The first FAA Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding ELTs was issued in 1968.

The states of Washington and California passed ELT laws in 1969, predating the 1970 federal law. A law in Colorado didn't pass, but it was one of Colorado's senators, Peter Dominick, who introduced the first federal legislation. He had been critical of the FAA and its failure to act on locator beacons even before the Oien crash.

And the issues with non-distress activations and non-functioning ELTs in crashes started as soon as the first beacons were sold.

Mike

[Eclipse]

I've used up my snarky for today (maybe):  http://tinyurl.com/lzdptge

Edit: I had to TinyURL it because the system kept truncating it weird.

[05332480]

Thanks. In a posting by Alice on August 4, 2008 there were raised questions about why the survivors did not try to get to hwy. 229 which they supposedly could hear traffic sounds from (North of the crash site). I have located a copy of the 1968 Saturday Evening Post containing the story referenced by Alice with excerpts from Carla's diary. If that answers any questions I will post it. As a safety officer I have studied many accidents but I guess this one interests me more than most because of the unanswered questions.

[Luis R. Ramos]

Maybe they confused the highway sounds with search airplane sounds.

Her diary states they heard "search aircraft sounds nearby," not car or truck traffic nearby.

Flyer

[05332480]

I went back and did some looking at TOPO maps and it appears they were on the South slope of Bully Choop mountain with the highest terrain to their North. This might explain why they could not hear the sounds from that direction and why the father went West looking for help.

[Luis R. Ramos]

If they had higher elevation between them and the highway, had they known for sure there was a highway to the north, do you think they would be able to get there? Considering they were injured...

Flyer

[05332480]

The question of why they did not go in that direction was originally raised by Alice in 2000. But after looking at the TOPO it became obvious why they did not go that way especially with their injuries. Still gathering info on this crash. Waiting for the Post to arrive with the article in it. I have heard nothing so far about any sort of survival equipment. If they could have built a fire it might have made all the difference.

[sardak]

Waiting for the Post to arrive with the article in it

Did you miss Eclipse's post with the link to where a scanned copy of the article is available online? The sheriff in the article says there were fuel, oil and dry matches on the plane.

I came across this yesterday at  http://oddballpilot.com/2013/07/it-must-have-been-the-fish/
Contributing writer Ross Nixon recently began flying right seat in the Dash 8 for Era Alaska. He only flies tricycle geared aircraft if he is paid. Before flying commercially he was a police officer and a commercial harvest diver in Puget Sound. He lives in Anchorage, Alaska now. For fun he flies a Piper PA-20 and is restoring a Cessna 195. His writing has been published in Alaska Magazine. He recently finished a book on the Carla Corbus air crash tragedy that led to the development of the ELT. The book, Finding Carla, will be published in 2013.

Mike

[05332480]

Mike thanks for that information. I actually found a copy of the Saturday Evening Post from 1968 with the Martin article. One of my original questions was whether they had any means to build a signal fire. Now that I know they did I am wondering why they did not. The sheriff's comment to the son of the pilot was they could have set that whole mountain on fire. I would be interested in obtaining a copy of that book when it comes out.

[Майор Хаткевич]

Just read that linked article...talk about getting goosebumps. 50+ days of basically no food?

[05332480]

When the crash site was finally found it was much further South than everyone had been searching. Even the pilots son was surprised by its location. It would be interesting to know how it was determined where the search effort should be concentrated. I drew a line from Portland to San Fran and it passes almost directly over the site West of Redding.

[Blackhawk]

Wow, that was a fascinating read. People under stress do strange things, but that doesn't explain everything!

[05332480]

I must admit that after all I read about this story I found myself going to my aircraft and looking through what I had in the way of survival gear. Even though I do not expect to have to land off airport it made me think about what would be most helpful in such a situation. Even in summer nights can get chilly so the ability to build a fire would be very important. Food and water would have to be something put together for nearly every flight or at least every so often just for freshness considerations. Some basic camping tools and a shelter like space blankets would be nice. With a PLB if we survive the landing we probably will not be out there long even if we do not have cell coverage. But the mystery remains: after 54 days in snow covered mountains why did Carla and her family not once build a fire?

[Eclipse]

If you're indoctrinated into the survival mindset - water, shelter, fire, food, rescue, then those things are second nature or assumptions,
if you aren't then they can be as foreign as flying itself to a non-pilot.

Were I in that situation, a reflective fire of some kind would have been high on the list, and
I would have dumped any gas I could get to on the tires and either burn them or
have them ready for a signal fire, etc.

Dazed, starving, dehydrated, starved and hypothermic people don't always think very straight.

Reminds me of that more recent story of the family lost for days where they were >hiding< from searchers because the son insisted he could get them out.

[Luis R. Ramos]

Maybe in shock, mind not in "survival mode?"

Maybe not sure where to build one?

If you were in such a situation, where would you build one?

Would you build one outside the aircraft remains to use as a double - purpose, signal and warmth?

How to sustain one, no means to cut wood?

Flyer

[sardak]

Here three similar incidents to ponder:

In 1959 (eight years before the Corbus crash), a plane with two doctors onboard crashed in the winter in New Hampshire. One of them kept a diary, though not for 54 days. Their remains and the plane were found two months after they disappeared. From an article on the incident - "Near the bodies, hanging from birch saplings, were two sets of crude snowshoes; they had been cannily crafted from branches and surgical tape, with bindings made of Ace bandages and adhesive plaster. Under the left wing of the airplane, near Dr. Miller's body, was a neat pile of firewood that had been cut with a surgical saw. Nearby were the remnants of a signal fire that, sadly, had never been seen from the air." ... "A final tragic misjudgment, for which the doctors cannot be blamed, involves their decision to abort the effort to walk out from the crash site."... "[Dr. Miller's] journal entries during the final four days suggest an objective, scientific detachment, rather than any sense of fear or desperation. His only stated regret was for his young colleague." [the passenger, Dr. Quinn]

Online article about the crash: http://dartmed.dartmouth.edu/winter00/html/plane_crash.shtml  and the downloadable PDF: http://dartmed.dartmouth.edu/winter00/pdf/Plane_Crash.pdf

Here's a blog, from just a couple of months ago, by someone who while hiking, met Dr. Miller's son (also a doctor) and his son, hiking in to the crash site. http://whitemountainsojourn.blogspot.com/2013_08_01_archive.html

Here is a photo essay by Dr. Quinn's son (also a doctor) on a visit to the crash site. A mouseover on the title "Tragedy in the North Woods" will bring up the intro to the story. There is a caption below each photo, so be sure to view them in the slide show view:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/gcquinn/sets/72157614857803871/
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No diary with this story, but it's about two men who survived a winter plane crash in the Sierras for 15 days in 1970. From a 2008 interview with Gene Ebell, 33 at the time of the crash. "Neither was dressed for snow. There was no food on the flight. All they had with them were their wits." The other survivor was Robert Starr, 17. "It snowed for 11 days after the crash...On the 11th day, after the sky cleared, Ebell and Starr tried to walk out. The snow was knee-deep, and they turned back." 
http://finalflightthebook.com/FresnoBee-LostFlightsSeries/869538_GeneEbell_crash_Sept16-08.html#morephotos#storylink=cpy

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1665&dat=19700127&id=oVBPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=MyQEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6938,1778877
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And a more recent one from Colorado, November 10, 1999. The scenario from the NTSB report: "The pilot and his wife were flying from Lagrangeville, New York, to Las Vegas, Nevada, with no winter clothing or survival equipment. The airplane departed Colorado Springs, Colorado, with full fuel tanks. An extensive search for the airplane started on November 20, 1999, and was unsuccessful. Hikers located the airplane on July 20, 2000, at 12,724 feet. Examination of the accident site indicated the pilot had made a precautionary landing on a mountain ridge."

"The ELT battery was out of date and the ELT was damaged [and had been removed from the aircraft]; a hand held transceiver was located under the pilot's seat; and the airplane's radios were found in the on position. The mountain rescue team found the pilot's wife in the right back seat. She had 'multiple portions of additional items of clothing on,' and she was found with insulation from the cabin's interior over her. The pilot was found approximately 30 feet from the airplane, and he was also wearing 'additional items of clothing', suggesting both survived the impact. The coroner reported that the pilot had a 4 millimeter beard. The VOR navigation antenna, located on the vertical stabilizer, had a man's necktie and shoelaces wrapped around it. No winter clothing or survival equipment was found in the airplane."

"The pilot's son said that his father was 'not much of an outdoors person,' and that he had had little or no training in outdoor survival skills."

NTSB full narrative available: http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief.aspx?ev_id=20001212X20088&key=1
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Mike

[05332480]

Thanks all for those comments. About the fire issue I did think that perhaps the depth of the snow had something to do with not building a fire since Carla had started down the mountain and found the going very slow because of the deep drifts. The aircraft was apparently a C-195 with a radial engine and they were evidently carrying considerable quantities of oil to service this engine which could have been used to make quite a fire. Carla left us a good account of their ordeal according to the article it generated in the Post but she did not write about why they did not do some things. The original diary disappeared into the archives of the Post when they were bought out evidentially and no one seems to know what happened to it. Perhaps it will turn up someday and answer more questions.