Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Missing-plane mystery from '67 could be solved

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2...ld-b/?uniontrib
Area to be targeted is South of Mt. Whitney. The crash occured in 1967.
The family's interest in finding its long-lost loved ones was revived during the 2007 search for the plane and remains of millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett in the eastern Sierra Nevada.
During the exhaustive, highly publicized search for Fossett, Wheeler read that the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida keeps a list of known crash sites. Those in California cover 55 pages – and rescue officials said it appears that all but one have been checked by law enforcement and amateur aviation archaeologists who use the list to find crash sites to explore.
“For whatever reason, someone looked out of a window and said, 'There's a Piper (Cherokee) PA-28 and nobody went to investigate it,' ” said Matt Scharper, the state's rescue coordinator for the Office of Emergency Services. “The question is: Is it what the Wheelers need for closure?”

The area has been investigated:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rockwellb/sets/72157621277511873/

The pieces in the pictures to which hightinerary refers are leftovers from this crash (see page 2). Over the years many hikers to Cirque from the south have found pieces, and the pickings are getting slim now.

Last month I was asked by the Inyo Sheriff to look especially hard next time I was there, because of renewed interest in the Webb crash. I responded, "You're lucky, because I'm climbing it this weekend." I told my companions to be on the lookout for a vertical stabilizer, with the tail number. But we didn't find any.

I believe they are grasping at the possibility that there are remains of two aircraft in the area. But the only bodies found have been of the two Navy personnel. By the way, if you look on the right side of picture 65, you'll see a Navy anchor insignia.

Hey is this that long lost "Gambler's Special" on the way to Reno back in the late 60s?

The "Gambler's Special" was a much larger commercial aircraft (DC-3), not a small private plane. Its location is well-known but hard enough to get to that not many people have been there. Check this link for an interesting writeup on the crash, its cause and a recent climb to visit the site.

Here's a thread on the Gambler's Special site:

  1969 Plane wreck north of LBS Lake