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Show 10 HILLTOP TIMES August 13, 2009 Dale Webb (left), and his sister Nancy Webb Nilson look through old photos and news articles about their parents and brother at Dale's home in Sandy on Aug. 3. Their father Carroll Eldridge Webb and mother Ruby Dora Olafson Pulzipher as well as their brother William Webb, who was the pilot of a plane, presumably wrecked in the Sierra Nevada mountains in 1967 although the wreckage of the plane and bodies were never found. A forest ranger has agreed to make a search of the area in in hopes of finding any evidence of the crash. Family wants Sierra mystery solved, 42 years later BY TRACIE CONE The Associated Press F RESNO, Calif. — Somewhere after Amelia Earhart in the annals of aviators who have flown into oblivion is the Webb Family: Ruby and Carroll and their son William, a budding pilot with just 70 hours in the cockpit. On June 2,1967, their 140-horsepower Piper Cherokee, overloaded and underpowered for the Sierra Nevada's 12,000-plus foot explore. "For whatever reason, someone peaks, set off on a flight to Ogden, looked out of a window and said and disappeared into the snowy there's a Piper (Cherokee) PA-28 wilderness east of Fresno. and nobody went to investigate it," After 42 years of uncertainty, said Matt Scharper, the state's resrelatives are hopeful the mystery cue coordinator for the Emergency of the last plane believed missing Management Agency. in the Sierra Nevada is ending. 'The question is, is it what the They say their best chance lies Wheelers need for closure?" with a dogged ranger who believes After Wheeler made repeated wreckage sighted years ago on a calls to law enforcement agencies remote peak in Sequoia National seeking information Park never has about the mystery been checked out. crash, she contacted "My mom Pontbriand. doesn't have a It turned out that lot of time left the ranger was no to wait to learn stranger to long-shot what happened to searches. her parents," said Susan Wheeler, In 2001, when who was 7 when he was working at her grandparOlympic National ents and uncle Park, he led a team disappeared. Her of divers who found mother is 72. the final resting place of Russel and Blanch This week, Warren, whose car Sequoia National was believed to have Park Ranger Dan plunged into the 1,000Pontbriand plans foot depths of Washto fly with a sherW. Webb ington's Lake Crescent iff's lieutenant and in 1929. the state Search and Rescue coordinator over the With the couple's grandchildren area south of 14,505-foot-tall Mount watching from shore, the divers Whitney. "If you have a subtle clue found a glass vase that had been and there's any validity, you'd beton the car's dash, and eventually a ter run it down until there's nothing femur and skull. left of it," Pontbriand said. "I'm still friends with all of The family's interest in findthem," Pontbriand said. "I was ing their long-lost loved ones was happy I could give them closure." revived during the 2007 search for A lake is easier to search than the plane and remains of millionthe vast Sierra Nevada. aire adventurer Steve Fossett in Before his blue and white rented the eastern Sierra Nevada. plane disappeared, pilot William Webb, 28, who worked in San Jose, During the exhaustive, highly told the FAA he would be flying publicized search for Fossett, over the Sierra to Ely, Nev., where Wheeler read that the Air Force he planned to refuel. Rescue Coordination Center at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida But Wheeler and others think a keeps a list of all known crash storm warning might have promptsites. Those in California cover 55 ed him to take a more southerly pages — and rescue officials say route through Cottonwood Pass, a it appears all but one have been low saddle between two ridges of checked by law enforcement and towering peaks. amateur aviation archeologists who While his flight instructor charuse the list to find crash sites to acterized him as a competent pilot, STEVE C. WILSON The Associated Press experts say, Webb likely did not have the experience to navigate the storm. At 12,000 feet, the altitude he would have needed to clear most peaks, his 140 horsepower carbureted engine would have been able to muster only about half of that. "It would have been like flying a lawnmower," Pontbriand said. If ice developed on the plane's wings, Webb would have been forced to descend, putting him on a collision course with Cirque Peak in the southern Sierra, he said. Associated Press accounts at the time say the search for the Webbs ended 10 days after they disappeared. The Civil Air Patrol looked again in October 1967 after learning then that their two-week search in March for a family crashed in the Trinity . Alps had ended too soon: a girl and her mother survived 54 days before she noted in a diary on her 16th birthday "I hope you are happy Search and Rescue. You haven't found us yet." They were eaten by bears. Wheeler had assumed all of these years that someone was on the lookout for her family, especially since her grandfather was a civilian employee of the fuel crew at Hill Air Force Base. However, the detailed records of the search for the missing family were purged from government files in 1974. Wheeler said she and her mother, Nancy Webb Nilson, of Ogden, hope that even if they have not located the crash site that their search will rekindle efforts to find them. "I'm trying to find a way to get the word out that we're looking for these people because we don't have the help Steve Fossett's family had," Wheeler said. "Maybe they were found and nobody knew how to get ahold of us because nobody knew who they were. I want to find them for my mom." Philadelphia I Sub Shop An undated photo provided by the family shows Dale Webb (left center), and his sister Nancy Webb Niison, with their father, Carroll Eldridge Webb (left), and brother William Webb (right). Carroll Eldridge Webb, along with his wife. Ruby Dora Olafson Pulzipher, and their son William Webb, who was the pilot of the plane, presumably wrecked in the Sierra Nevada mountains in 1967. "I'm trying to find a way to get the word out that we're looking for these people because we don't have the help Steve Fossett's family had.f/ SUSAN WHEELER, descendant of missing family members who hopes plane wreckage is found soon You've Earned It Utah Career College offers scholarships to qualified military students: Serving Northern Utah Since 1982 We Built our Business on quality ol Product & Service • Military Active Duty Scholarship for active duty members of the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Navy, Marines, and drilling National Guard/Reserve. Spouses and dependent HOURS: Monday - Friday 10:30am - 6pm children are also eligible. • Military Advantage Scholarship for honorably discharged veterans, spouses and dependent children. 825-2844 Utah Career College offers college programs In legal science, health science, information technology and business. 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