A ‘Surreal’ Camping Experience at Nairn Falls

By Vickie Nickel
Published: July 5, 2013

It was a surreal experience camping at Nairn Falls last weekend when a self-propelled glider crashed into a Cessna above the campground.

I was camping there with some friends and family, when I heard the voice of a screaming engine, followed by a thunderous crash.

Then, we saw people milling about on the roadways careening this way and that, trying to ascertain what exactly had happened.

We finally found out that a Cessna 150, and a self-propelled glider each containing a pilot and passenger had collided midair, resulting in four people being killed.

We saw looking over the river a bent and broken Cessna drifting just above the tree line.

Many of the campers overlooking the river said they saw one of the victims being dragged behind some falling debris with an unopened parachute.

Debris tumbled from the sky as people began a hurried exit into their vehicles and trailers.

All through the camp site a refrain of, ‘ get in your campers, trailers and vehicles, debris is coming down’, could be heard far and wide.

And come down it did with the assistance of gravity. Debris of varying size crashed down around the camp site. Cracking limbs of trees and glass impaling the ground. 

With 90 camp sites full of campers it is amazing that there were no further injuries.

The Cessna door landed on the ground two feet from the awning of my trailer. A piece of the siding off one of the aircraft landed twenty feet from my trailer door.

Some large debris got lodged in the trees, and one wing landed just off the main parking lot.

Fragments of debris filtered down from the sky for at least fifteen minutes. It all happened very quickly, and it was hard to believe.

Many of us were left asking our neighbors, “Did I just see that? Was that real?’  

All four of the bodies were retrieved which was of great concern for most of us camping at the site, thankful that none of us has had human wreckage to contend with.

One couple said that as they were hurrying back to their camp site to get in their trailer, a lottery ticket sailed down from the wreckage.

They caught it midair and later checked the lottery numbers. Unfortunately it was not a winning ticket.

Their plan was to have it give it to the families of the victims, but it wasn’t a day that good fortune rained from the sky.