OLYMPIA – A young pilot died early Saturday when her plane went down near Olympia.
Kai Hetschel, 20, of Vancouver, Wash., had taken off Friday night from Paine Field in Everett and was headed to Troutdale, Ore., said Donn Walker, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration. Shortly before midnight, she reported to an air traffic controller that she was having weather-related problems.
The FAA contacted the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office about 2 a.m. to report that it had lost communication and radar contact with the plane.
Using the last known radar coordinates, deputies in the sheriff’s helicopter were able to locate the Cessna 172 in the Capitol Forest. A helicopter removed Hetschel’s body from the wreckage about 8 a.m. Saturday.
The National Transportation Safety Board will conduct an investigation of the crash. An autopsy was scheduled for Sunday.
Associated Press
Bellingham: Port plans major airport expansion
A $1.2 million expansion of Bellingham International Airport’s terminal is one of the biggest items in the Port of Bellingham’s preliminary 2005 budget. Port Executive Director Jim Darling said the airport project will enclose the open-air baggage area and provide new indoor space for car rental counters. That, in turn, will make more room in the existing terminal for arriving and departing passengers. Elbowroom is scarce in the terminal when Allegiant Air’s 130- to 160-passenger jets are taking passengers to and from Las Vegas.
Bellingham Herald
Cashmere: Hunter finds $3 million in marijuana
Thousands of marijuana plants worth an estimated $3 million were found by a hunter in the Wenatchee National Forest about seven miles southeast of this Chelan County town. More than 3,000 plants were growing in dense woods for about half a mile along a small creek a mile from a nearby road, Chelan County Sheriff Mike Harum said Saturday. The plants were found Thursday, and on Friday deputies and agents with the Columbia River Drug Task Force found a camp and a sophisticated irrigation system, Harum said. The plants were destroyed. There were no arrests. Investigators believe the operation is related to similar ones found in September in the Stemilt Basin north of Chelan Airport and near Daroga Park in Douglas County, Harum said. Between late August and early October, authorities confiscated more than 15,500 pot plants worth $15.5 million at four farms in Chelan and Douglas counties.
Associated Press
Seattle: Staff warned UW about overbilling
The University of Washington was warned by doctors and staff years before a whistle-blower reported overbilling of Medicare and Medicaid. According to internal records, the warnings began at least six years before a whistle-blower filed a lawsuit in August 1999 against two billing groups for UW doctors, alleging massive fraud and efforts to cover up wrongdoing. The suit led to a lengthy criminal investigation in which two prominent UW doctors pleaded guilty to felony charges.
Associated Press
North Bend: Released from jail, man kills wife
A man who fatally stabbed his wife before killing himself at a sushi restaurant the couple owned had been released from jail the day before the murder-suicide. Police in Bellevue arrested Man Hong “David” Chung, 50, on Monday for investigation of domestic violence assault, a misdemeanor. On Thursday, he killed his wife, Kwang Ja “Annie” Chung, 41, then turned the knife on himself at Happy Sushi and Teriyaki.
Associated Press
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