Along Pioneer Highway near Silvana, dandelions bloom bright yellow in the farm fields. Some have gone to seed, their dandelion puffs ready to blow away on a breeze.
The land has healed.
As terrible news came Monday that a plane carrying 10 people from a Snohomish sky diving club had crashed, I thought of Aug. 21, 1983, when a spectacular summer Sunday turned tragic.
The next day’s Herald told how a Lockheed L-18 Learstar carrying 26 people had taken off from the Arlington Airport for what was to have been the fourth and last jump of the day. Most of the people aboard were from the Issaquah Parachute Center. The plan was for two dozen sky-diving friends to join hands in the air to form a snowflake pattern.
Witness Robert Johnson, who lived on nearby Norman Road, saw it all go wrong. He told The Herald how he’d seen the plane flying low over his house and heard its engines revving. He saw it roll, then go into the ground.
Before it crashed, 15 people jumped, surviving the crash that killed nine sky divers and two pilots. Later that week, The Herald identified those killed: pilot Mike Peterson, 37, of Seattle; co-pilot John Fritz Erik, 33, of Woodinville; Jamilee Kempton, 18, of Mercer Island; Terry Cafferty, 38, of Bellevue; Dean “Bushy” Bushong, 37, and his wife, Marilyn Bushong, 30, of Clearview; Jim Schill, 31, of Bellevue; Ken Newman, 27, of Longview; Bob Lockwood, 34, of Kent; Bob Bandes, 24, of Seattle; and Mark Leverenz, 25, of Bellevue.
The National Transportation Safety Board later determined that the plane, operated by Landry Aviation Inc., likely crashed because of improper load distribution.
Stopping alongside the Pioneer Highway on Tuesday, next to a grassy pasture near Norman Road, I saw no scar on the land, only the stubborn yellow dandelions and the puffy balls of seed.
In Arlington, 67-year-old Buddy Schmidt is one of many who’ll never forget. A jump pilot, Schmidt was in Issaquah on the day of the 1983 crash.
“All jumpers vividly remember that day,” he said. “We got a phone call. It was one of those things you read about in the newspaper. When it’s there at your doorstep, it’s hard to believe.”
Schmidt is among a group of people in Arlington working on installing a bench along the trail surrounding the Arlington Airport to commemorate those who died in the Silvana crash. Next August will be the 25th anniversary of that dark day.
Nearly 25 years later, Schmidt understands the sorrow of those who lost friends and loved ones this week.
“The sky diving community is real close-knit, actually the whole flying community is very close. Not too many people get involved in that kind of sport. Everybody knows each other,” said Schmidt, who lives north of Arlington.
Now, as then, Schmidt said, “They all were doing something they enjoyed.”
“Sky divers have an interesting way of looking at things,” Schmid said. “It’s a celebration of life.”
Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
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