911 call: 'I feel like the plane could have hit the mountain'
SEATTLE - Authorities have released audio recordings of the 911 call that first reported a private plane slamming into the side of Mount Si early Wednesday morning, killing three people.
The call came from a stunned witness moments after the impact.
"911 - what are you reporting?" the emergency dispatcher is heard saying on the tape.
The caller sounds stunned after he says the single-engine Cessna 172 passed just overhead.
"Feel like I should be able to see fire but the engine definitely stopped," the caller is heard saying on the recording. "I thought that it was super low ... and it was going towards ... I'm guessing that it would have hit little Si."
"Like it was so low...I really think that it could have really happened, I feel like the plane could have hit the mountain," the caller says.
Searchers using night-vision goggles later found the crash scene on the 4,200-foot peak.
Rob Hill, the swim coach at Decatur High School, was killed in the crash.
Also on board was Kentlake High School swim coach Seth Dawson and their friend, Elizabeth Redling.
Friday night in Federal Way at Decatur there was a candlelight memorial for Hill held by his students.
"He was insanely funny. He was really, really nice. He was the most caring coach I ever had," said Decatur High School student Robyn Marant.
"No matter how bad our attitudes got on the pool deck, he was always there encouraging us," said another student.
Now investigators are working to find out why the plane went down that cloudy night - stunning the people who live at the base of Mount Si.
The call came from a stunned witness moments after the impact.
"911 - what are you reporting?" the emergency dispatcher is heard saying on the tape.
The caller sounds stunned after he says the single-engine Cessna 172 passed just overhead.
"Feel like I should be able to see fire but the engine definitely stopped," the caller is heard saying on the recording. "I thought that it was super low ... and it was going towards ... I'm guessing that it would have hit little Si."
"Like it was so low...I really think that it could have really happened, I feel like the plane could have hit the mountain," the caller says.
Searchers using night-vision goggles later found the crash scene on the 4,200-foot peak.
Rob Hill, the swim coach at Decatur High School, was killed in the crash.
Also on board was Kentlake High School swim coach Seth Dawson and their friend, Elizabeth Redling.
Friday night in Federal Way at Decatur there was a candlelight memorial for Hill held by his students.
"He was insanely funny. He was really, really nice. He was the most caring coach I ever had," said Decatur High School student Robyn Marant.
"No matter how bad our attitudes got on the pool deck, he was always there encouraging us," said another student.
Now investigators are working to find out why the plane went down that cloudy night - stunning the people who live at the base of Mount Si.
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