Silver City, N.M. — Robert Ingraham Jr., El Paso Times correspondent, here and at New Mexico Western College, was injured in a plane crash near Hillsboro late Saturday. Pilot of the plane was reported in serious condition and not expected to live. The aircraft, a T-34 trainer, piloted by an Arizona man, name unknown late Saturday, was leading a borate aircraft plane over a fire in the Gila National Forest near Hillsboro.
A parachutist, Dick Track, landed in the area and found young Ingraham sitting beside the plane, injured but apparently not too serious, according to Ingraham's father, Robert Ingraham.
Forest Service officials in Silver City said they would work through the night directing rescue operations. A ground party was making their way into the area late Saturday. With them was Dr. Clarence Cobb, mayor of Silver City. Plans are to bring the party out by helicopter Sunday.
Silver City, N.M.— Two victims of the crash of a U.S. Forest Service airplane in Hillsboro, N.M., late Saturday afternoon, were patients in the Hillcrest General Hospital in Silver City Sunday.
Wendell Schroll, 34, Redding, Calif., pilot of the T34 plane, and Bob Ingraham Jr., Silver City, were injured seriously in the crash. A dramatic, successful rescue was made during the dark of the night.
Ingraham, 19, was flying in the craft as a photographer. Serving as a lead plane for a TBM borate dropping ship, the T34 left the Grant county airport to drop borate on a small fire near the Hillsboro peak, one the highest of the Black Range.
After leading the borate plane through the run the T34 took a downdraft from beyond the ridge and plunged into the forest at an estimated speed of 90 m.p.h. [149 km/h]
Schroll was thrown several feet from the aircraft, which was demolished and doused with gasoline. No fire resulted. Ingraham, the less injured of the two, managed to drag the pilot from the engine, upon which he was lying.
An hour elapsed before the plane was reported missing and located. Too late to clear an area for helicopters to land, a smokejumper, Dick Tracy, was dropped to the scene and landed about a quarter of a mile away.
It was his arrival that saved the injured men, who were helpless to protect themselves from the cold of the high mountain.
A ground party, including Dr. Claran Cobb, arrived at the scene about 4 a.m. Sunday. Chain saws were used to clear the trees for the helicopter and the injured men were flown at daybreak directly to the front entrance of the Silver City hospital.
Following emergency treatment, surgery was performed on the two men, both of whom suffered many injuries, including lacerations.
This was the second accident of its kind during several years of aerial forest fire-fighting in the Gilas.
A TMB crashed last season, killing the pilot.
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