Searchers are still searching for a missing plane in rugged forest land near Queets that abruptly dropped off radar Monday evening March 6th 2023. Weather is preventing air search and rescue efforts from happening today Sunday, March 12th, but Crews will evaluate air search efforts again Monday, March 13th. Washington State’s Search and Rescue Planning Team continue to investigate last known primary radar returns of the plane.
Air Search and Rescue was notified of a missing 2006 Cessna T182 Turbo Skylane piloted by Rod Collen on Monday evening. Search efforts began that night and has included air searches on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday when the weather permitted safe flying conditions. Law enforcement and others have been patrolling roadways in the last known position area as well.
Collen left the Tacoma Narrows Airport at 5:35 p.m. on Monday, and a few minutes into the flight the plane's Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) system was either turned off or malfunctioned and the plane was no longer visible on normal tracking systems in the air traffic controllers use. With the help of a specialized radar forensics team, primary radar returns were located that placed the aircraft near the coast between Lake Quinault and Queets. The final radar plots show the aircraft made a very rapid descent to the ground. Collen was the only one in the plane.