October 19, 2009, 3:12 pm
As wildlife advocates mourned the plane-crash death of Gordon Haber, the biologist who spent 40 years documenting the lives and societies of Denali's wolves, his pilot was recovering Friday in a burn center in Seattle after hiking 20 miles back to civilization.
Details of the crash and rescue operation in the heart of Denali National Park emerged Friday, two days after the Cessna 185 used by Haber crashed in spruce trees near the East Fork of the Toklat River, the locale of one of the wolf packs Haber was studying.
The pilot, Daniel McGregor, 35, told a park ranger that he was able to free himself from the wreckage, according to Clint Johnson, senior investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board.
But as McGregor struggled to free Haber, the plane caught fire and he had to abandon his efforts, Johnson said.
Johnson said he didn't know if Haber was conscious - or even alive - at
the time, but hoped to get that information from McGregor when he
recovers sufficiently to be interviewed, probably in the next week or
two, he said.
Haber's loss was a huge blow to the conservation groups that sought to
expand the area of protection for wolves outside the boundaries of
Denali Park and who opposed frequent state efforts to kill wolves and
bears to increase game populations.
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