Fatal Plane Crash in Cascade

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of 50-year-old David Henderson who died in a small plane crash near Cascade when the pilot accidentally flew into a box canyon.

The plane was being transported after a sale from Nampa to Georgia.  The pilot, 54-year-old Andrew Akin quickly found himself in trouble and attempted to climb out of the terrain with a "course reversal turn" to get out of the canyon.

Henderson was the co-pilot and also had flying experience but the plane took a nose dive when the "course reversal turn" maneuver went wrong.  Within seconds the two crashed into the rocks below near the Sulfur Creek Air Strip.  This crash happened back on September 2 but specific details are just now coming out.

Henderson died immediately and Akin was immediately air lifted by helicopter to a local hospital.  Akin has almost 1,000 hours of flying experience but not much experience flying in the back country.  Many precautions were taken to ensure the safety of both men including a trial flight to familiarize Akin with the plane.  Unfortunately now we're left with a tragedy where one man is dead and the other in the hospital.

After the crash Akin used his cell phone to call the Valley County Sheriff's Office and told them Henderson was dead.  Authorities used pinging off of Akin's cell phone to pin point his location and helicopter him out to a hospital.  The crash is still under investigation.