Plane wreckage search resumes

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, November 27, 2003

Federal officials will probably not know for about six months what caused a single-engine plane piloted by an Everett man to crash near Scappoose, Ore., Tuesday morning, a federal transportation official said Thursday.

Phil Brewer, 47, an experienced pilot and a manager for flight test manufacturing operations for Boeing, died in the crash. His wife, Sondra Brewer, 38, and her daughters, Marisa Vandeventer, 9, and Elisse Vandeventer, 11, also died.

Searchers still haven’t found the engine or the front part of the cockpit of the plane, said Tom Little, air safety investigator for the Northwest regional office of the National Transportation Safety Board.

"It’s a very difficult area to work in," Little said. "It’s a muddy, murky marsh area."

Searchers planned to resume the search for the plane parts on Friday, he said.

Brewer was piloting a single-engine Beech Bonanza airplane when it crashed shortly after he had radioed a mayday call, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.