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Plane crash victims still hospitalized
Thursday, August 7, 2008 11:34 AM PDT
PORTLAND (AP) — The mother and two children injured when a plane crashed into their rented beach house on the Oregon coast are expected to survive, according to a statement released Wednesday on behalf of their relatives.
In their first public statement since the crash that killed five on Monday, the Reimann family said Ruth Johnson-Reimann, 47, and her 11-year-old daughter, Sarah, are in critical condition at the Oregon Burn Center at Portland’s Legacy Emanuel Hospital. Reimann’s son, 13-year-old Christopher, is listed in serious condition.
The statement e-mailed by Legacy Health System said their conditions are stable, all are expected to survive, and that Matt Reimann and his family are “grateful and overwhelmed” at the outpouring of support they have received.
It said neither the family nor doctors would give interviews and asked that the family’s privacy be respected.
Authorities said the plane had just taken off from nearby Seaside Municipal Airport when it hit a tree and then the house in the town of Gearhart.
Rescuers found Johnson-Reimann and two of her three children alive at the burning house.
Dead were Matt and Ruth Reimann’s youngest daughter, 10-year-old Julia of Portland, and her cousins — Hesam Farrar Masoudi, 12, and Grace Masoudi, 8, both of Denver.
Ruth Johnson-Reimann is the daughter of Lee Johnson, the former Oregon attorney general. The five children affected by the crash are his grandchildren.
Both men in the plane, pilot Jason Ketcheson, 36, and passenger Frank Toohey, 58, died in the crash. |