Madras plane crash victims identified as Idaho couple
Published 11:00 am Thursday, March 14, 2024
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MADRAS — The victims of a plane crash near Madras on Sunday, March 10, have been identified as a husband and wife from Idaho, but the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office has yet to release their names.
They were the only people aboard the single-engine Piper PA-32, which crashed about 5½ miles southeast of Madras, leaving “no survivors,” the sheriff’s office said. Emergency personnel responded to the area after receiving a 911 call at around 7:40 p.m. Sunday.
The couple was from Caldwell, Idaho, but the sheriff’s office is not yet naming them “due to the difficulty in trying to notify family of the incident.”
“We are waiting to release names due to contact with family,” said Sheriff Jason Pollock in a text message to The Bulletin on Tuesday. “We did make contact with one family member, but one of the other members is in the Army overseas. We are waiting on that notification.”
Authorities say the plane had departed from Aurora, in Marion County, and was on its way to Idaho. The cause of the crash has not been determined, but the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.
“A preliminary report is expected within 30 days of the accident,” a safety board spokesman said in an email to The Bulletin.
The plane crash was discovered about 7:30 p.m. Sunday by a Bonneville Power Administration line crew that was in the area to fix a downed power line. The aircraft appeared to have struck a static wire, a spokesperson for the utility said.