Homepage / Portland News
E-Mail News Alerts
Get breaking news and daily headlines.
Browse all e-mail newsletters
Related To Story

Info Emerges About Victims Of Plane Crash

POSTED: 5:59 pm PDT August 5, 2008
UPDATED: 8:09 am PDT August 6, 2008

New information was revealed about the victims of a plane crash that killed five people including three children Monday.

People in the close-knit community of Gearhart had little to say as investigators tried to determine what caused the plane to crash.

According to investigators, Sarah, Julia, Christopher and Ruth Reimann were all inside a house in Gearhart when an airplane crashed into the home early Monday morning, killing 10-year-old Julia along with two other children – 9-year-old Grace Masoudi and her 12-year-old brother, Hesam, from Denver, Colo.

Doctors are now treating Ruth Reimann, her daughter Sarah, 11, and her son Christopher, 13, at Legacy Emanuel Hospital's burn unit.

Sarah, a fifth-grader, and Julia, who was in fourth grade, were both enrolled in the Spanish immersion program at Ainsworth Elementary last year.

Custodian Tyron Johnson remembered the children as great students.

"They have a lot of friends here. It's going to be devastating. I'm devastated. I just saw them in June," Johnson said. "(They are) very nice girls, very spirited, school everyday, love to be here, outgoing just loving girls. I'm sorry to hear about that."

People who know Ruth Reimann expressed their sadness after she not only was injured when the single-engine plane crashed into the house her family was vacationing in but also suffered the loss of her daughter Julia.

A pilot and passenger on the plane also died in the fiery crash.

Ruth Johnson Reimann works at Kaiser Permanente in Vancouver where co-workers said the Reimanns are a close-knit family.

A co-worker described Ruth Reimann as a great nurse, midwife and dedicated mother and said the tragedy is too much to bear.

"The response has been that everybody's very, very stunned. We work closely together and have been for quite some time. We're shocked and there aren't really words," co-worker Vicky Van Dycke said.

More information also came to light Tuesday about the two other children who died in the house. Grace and Hesam Masoudi were vacationing with their father, Dr. Frederick Masoudi, and mother.

The doctor and his wife were both out of the house on a walk with their oldest daughter when the small plane hit a tree and continued into the house causing an explosion and the death of their two children.

Chris Brown of News Radio 750 KXL toured the damage Tuesday and described the scene as utter devastation.

He said the airplane came in from the backside, clipped a tree and then entered the lower backside of the house.

Twenty seconds later, a fireball erupted, causing shards of wood to be imbedded into trees and pieces of blinds to be shot hundreds of feet away from where the house once stood, Brown said.

The only things that were left standing were two chimneys. The front porch was actually blown away from the house, he said.

"Witnesses reported a fireball that went hundreds of feet in the air. It took about seven minutes from the time dispatchers sent fire crews till the first engine was there and actually putting water on this, and you can just see the devastation is absolute," Brown said.

Info Emerges About Victims Of Deadly Plane Crash

Links We Like
Sponsored Content
Feeling bloated or uncomfortable after eating? Try these five recipes and find out why they are so good for digestion. More

Find out what a sputtering economy and an increasingly difficult to crack job market means to you. More

Check out some of the most notorious police car chase scenes ever caught on tape. Don’t try this at home. More

Studies have identified several factors that increase the risk of stroke. Find out what they are here. More

Sponsored Links

Consumer Info


Sponsored Content Provided by ARA