Survivor’s Family Talks About High Desert Plane Crash
PALM SPRINGS -A student pilot and his instructor are alive after crashing their plane in our local mountains Monday morningbefore stormy weather moved into the area.
Their plane went downin a remote area of Joshua Tree National Park as theyflew from Joshua Tree to Palm Springs International Airport.
“We just got on the phone calling everybody,” says Mary Fasano, daughter of thestudent. “Sayinghe was alive.”
Fasano says someone was looking out for her dad Rocky Harvey and his flight instructorwhen their plane crashed.
“You always hear about the plane crashes,” she said. “You have better chance of having a car accident than a plane crash. So you always hear about it happening to someone else.”
Her father’s Cessna-172 four-seatertook off from Joshua Tree just past7am. They were scheduled to land at Palm Springs International Airport as part of a “touch and go” practice routine.
They never made it.
They disappeared fromradareight miles north of Palm Springs.
Civil Air Patrol helped track down the location late Monday night in cold, snowy weather.
“Our biggest problem was staying out of the clouds and trying to find the emergency locator beacon which was being detected by our equipment,” said Sgt. Frank Tullo.
Just how did this crash happen?
According to family members the plane encountered a gust of windknown as a “down draft” that forced them to lose altitude at a very fast pace. They tried to recover. Unfortunately, they crashed into a mountain peak.
According to a park spokesperson, the plane crashed at the summit of the Quail Mountain peak, the highest peak there.
“It kinda looked like the surface of the moon,” said Lt. Gene Ramirez. “Lots of rocks, hilly, mountainous. It wasn’t a place I’d want to land. “
Rocky’s family sayshe was close to getting his pilot’s license. He began taking flying lessons more than a year ago. He bought the Cessna as a Christmas gift for himself.
Miraculously, Rocky suffered only broken bones. And he even tried to find help.
