On 1/14/79, the pilot of the Piper PA-31 Navajo, N6567L attempted a nonstop flight from Kennewick, Washington to San Diego, California. The aircraft had insufficient fuel on board to complete the flight and crashed while attempting an emergency landing at sundown on the unlit dirt runway at the Hart Mine Airport near the California/Nevada border. The pilot and his two passengers survived the accident.

A few more miles on this dirt road and I'll get to the starting point for the hike to the Navajo crash site.

I started the hike from here.

As I approached the area the Piper Navajo went down, I could see some wreckage on the hill up ahead.

Getting closer I could make out two large pieces of wreckage. The Piper crashed in an area with a lot of joshua trees.

Coming up on the first piece of wreckage.

Turned out to be the tail section.

The left horizontal stabilizer was missing.

It was shot full of holes, but could make out "N656" on this side. Seems like anything left out in the desert ends up full of holes.

On the other side the was the rest of the number, the plane is N6567L.