Toiyabe National Forest Piper Aztec N5001Y 5/27/12
Read MoreOn 12/6/77 the twin engine Piper PA-23-250 Aztec N5001Y was on a flight believed en route from Mexico to an unknown destination when it crashed due to fuel exhaustion onto a hillside in Nevada's Toiyabe National Forest. The two 29 year old men onboard survived the accident and were found two days later by motorists as they crawled injured along a road approximately nine miles from the crash site. They were transported to Nye General Hospital in Tonopah and treated for broken legs. When questioned by authorities, they stated that they had been involved in an automobile accident. Later when trackers came upon the wreckage of their airplane, they discovered that it was loaded with 725 pounds of marijuana. By the time the authorities had figured out what happened, the two injured men had been transported to the French Hospital in San Francisco, California. Sheriff's officers were able to collect enough evidence at the crash site for a Nevada Judge to sign arrest warrants and fix bail at $100,000. Evidence collected included finger prints, blood samples and in the suspects vacated Nevada hospital room, the key to the airplane.
After a three and a half hour drive on highways starting from Lone Pine, California, I started the hour drive on dirt roads to the site. Doesn't look like many folks drive these roads, they were overgrown in many places.
A few years ago, I was given the location of this crash site. At the time I was told that it was an unknown twin that was spotted by the Civil Air Patrol during the search for the missing Bellanca Super Decathlon N240R flown by Steve Fossett. I hope to be able to identify the plane and learn it's story.Turning it over, I could see that it was the right wing tip. While searching for photos of Aztecs online, I came upon a pair of these tips for sale. They were described as "Piper PA-23 Aztec/Apache Metco Fuel Tips +48 gallons". Seems that the 48 extra gallons weren't enough as the cause of this accident was fuel exhaustion.