[3] The small red-and-white plane took off from the Klamath Falls Airport at 10:00 pm on the night of Tuesday, October 28, with a 30-minute flight planned to the Kittredge Ranch in the isolated Warner Valley, located about 70 miles to the east, near the town of Adel.

[3] Oscar Kittredge had remained at the landing site until midnight before returning home,[2] and had contacted Cornett's wife early the next day, October 29, to learn if plans had for some reason been changed.

[6] Those originally discovering the crash site reported that the plane had cut a swath through the hillside, snapping off trees, bending the aircraft's wings at a 90-degree angle and mangling it so severely that "no one could be alive.

"[5] The bodies of Snell (age 52), Cornett (49), and Farrell (41) were recovered on October 30, with darkness and rugged terrain having prevented their recovery the same day the crash was discovered.

[5] One passenger had been ejected from a door that had come open in the crash with the other three bodies remaining strapped in the fuselage, according to a member of the U.S. Forest Service party which made its way to the scene.