58-Year-Old Dug Snow Cave, Spent 24 Hours Stranded, Airplane Destroyed

A 58-year-old pilot who was flying a Cessna 172 from Laughlin (NV) to Paonia (CO) crashed in eight feet of powder snow in Colorado on Wednesday. His aircraft was completely destroyed, but he managed to survive freezing temperatures at the 10,000 foot level by digging a snow cave, and was rescued 24 hours later. Miraculously, he was hungry and dehydrated, but uninjured.

Civil Air Patrol volunteer Mark Young, who is also the Montrose County Coroner, told the Associated Press that when they reached the crash site rescuers were not optimistic for the man's fate. "The plane was completely torn apart and completely destroyed," Young said. "I cannot believe he survived the crash, then survived the night up there."

Authorities had detected the transmission from the aircraft's ELT on Wednesday night, but they could not perform a thorough search due to low clouds in the area. The wreck was spotted on Thursday by rescuers as they overflew the area in a helicopter.

IDENTIFICATION
  Regis#: 3985F        Make/Model: C172      Description: 172, P172, R172, Skyhawk, Hawk
  Date: 02/15/2005     Time: 

  Event Type: Accident   Highest Injury: None     Mid Air: N    Missing: N
  Damage: Substantial

LOCATION
  City: MONTROSE   State: CO   Country: US

DESCRIPTION
  ACFT, CRASHED UNDER UNKNOWN CIRCUMSTANCES IN RUGGED TERRAIN, THE ONE
  UNINJURED PERSON ON BOARD WAS RESCUED 30 NM SOUTHWEST OF MONTROSE, CO

INJURY DATA      Total Fatal:   0
                 # Crew:   1     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Pass:   0     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Grnd:         Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   

WEATHER: NOT REPORTED

OTHER DATA

  Departed: UNK                         Dep Date:    Dep. Time:     
  Destination:                          Flt Plan:              Wx Briefing: 
  Last Radio Cont: 
  Last Clearance: 

  FAA FSDO: SALT LAKE CITY, UT  (NM07)            Entry date: 02/18/2005

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.ntsb.gov