In Memory

Curtis Talbot VIEW PROFILE

Curtis Talbot

Curtis Talbot

BIRTH

Cedar City, Iron County, Utah, USA

DEATH 13 Sep 1983 (aged 31)

Toutle, Cowlitz County, Washington, USA

BURIAL

Paragonah, Iron County, Utah, USA
MEMORIAL ID 9911067 · View Source

Curtis lost his life in a helicopter crash that also took the life of his father .In The Mount Saint Helen's area after the eruption. The pilot, also killed, had a heart attack causing the crash.

UPI ARCHIVES  News Article - AUG. 15, 1983

Five missing in air crashes

Nine people were killed in weekend air crashes, including five who died in a helicopter accident while on a tourist flight around Mount St. Helens. Authorities searched for five other missing air travelers.

Scuba teams at daylight today were to resume looking for two of the six people who went down Sunday in a commercial helicopter about 80 yards off a beach in Dover, N.J. Two people were killed and two others were critically injured. The missing -- a 14-year-old boy and the pilot - were presumed dead.

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In Arizona, Civil Air Patrol planes searched for a single-engine Mooney 230 Turbo that was last seen Aug. 5 on a flight from Oklahoma to California with two men and a 5-year-old boy aboard. Officials said they believed the plane crashed.

Fourteen planes searched for the missing plane between Kingman, Ariz., and the Grand Canyon airport, said Leighton Cress, a CAP spokesman in Flagstaff.

The pilot was identified as Bob Wakeman, about 60, of Fullerton. The passengers were identified as his son-in-law, James Huffman, 36, and Wakeman's 5-year-old grandson, both of Tulsa.

A light plane went down Sunday in Idaho, about 9 miles from Jackpot, Nev., killing one person and injuring another. Names of the victims were not released immediately and authorities were investigating the cause of the crash.

Authorities also trying to determine the cause of a helicopter crash Saturday that killed the pilot and four out-of-state tourists flying around the Mount St. Helens volcano.

The bodies were burned beyond recognition and authorities were checking dental records for positive identification, said Sandy Rountree, a Cowlitz County sheriff's spokeswoman.

*****The log of the helicopter's owner identified the passengers as Curtis and Elwin W. Talbot, both of Salt Lake City;***** and Emery M. and Gail Miller of Marlborough, Mass., Ms. Rountree said. The pilot was Terry Witham, 37, of Castle Rock, Wash.

Witham's friends and relatives said he was experienced and had been flying in the area for 2 years.

Delwin M. Wentz, 27, or Granite Falls, Wash., became the other victim of the weekend accidents when his Cessna 150 crashed Sunday near the Granite Falls airport north of Seattle.

Four of the victims in the New Jersey were believed to be members of the same family, Point Pleasant Hospital - hospital spokesman William Eastmond said.

A middle-aged man and a younger man were dead on arrival at Point Pleasant Hospital, Eastman said. A 17-year-old boy and a 20-year-old woman survived and were hospitalized in critical condition.

'Surfers were the first on the scene and pulled the victims out of the water,' said Police Lt. Robert Little. 'Then they were evacuated by air to the hospital.'

The copter, which was owned by the Jan-Mar Co. of Morristown, a charter firm, broke up on impact and wreckage was scattered over the water. The cause of the crash was under investigation. Police said they did not know the destination of the helicopter.

In New York City, a commuter helicopter trying to touch down at a Manhattan heliport Sunday night went out of control and crashed, injuring one of the six people aboard.

City officials have been considering changing regulations governing flight rules for helicopters over the city after last month's collision of a police traffic helicopter and a seaplane over Brooklyn. Four people were killed in the crash





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