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Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Surviving dogs, a backcountry rescue: Story of deadly plane crash in Idaho retold
For former U.S. Forest Service smokejumper Wayne Williams, the best part of reading an Idaho author's recent book was finding out what happened to the dog at the end. Williams was one of the first responders who helped rescue survivors, recover the deceased and clear the wreckage of the June 1979 plane crash chronicled in the book 'In Selway Shadows: Last Flight of 148Z,' written by Richard Holm, a backcountry pilot based in McCall, and published in March. Williams, a U.S. Forest Service smokejumper, spent the first night at the scene of the crash camped beside the dog, Bess, a retriever-German shepherd mix who'd sustained a fractured leg when the plane went down in the Selway River. After the dog was evacuated the next day by plane, Williams never learned what happened to her. Holm tracked down details — like what happened to Bess — by poring over documents and interviewing witnesses, including the two survivors of the crash to create the most complete account of the event, which killed 10 people. Holm's book offers a look at life before the flight, the crash's impact on survivors and the victims' families and the ways a wilderness community rallied to recover the wreckage from a near-impossible crash site. It also details an investigation that shows how this became the deadliest aviation incident in Forest Service history. 'It's a tragic story, but it's also one of a lot of heroism,' Holm told the Idaho Statesman in a phone interview. 'The larger story is made up of all these incredible smaller stories that are just truly unbelievable.' Holm first heard about Flight 148Z while working on a book about the history of Idaho's backcountry airstrips. But the topic 'kind of fell in my lap again,' he said, through a friend he'd met in his research — Cindy Bartholf, a former archaeologist with the Nez Perce National Forest near Grangeville in North Idaho. Bartholf contacted Holm in 2016 about an airplane data tag that a Florida man had 'returned' to the forest. He said he found it in the Selway River in the fall of 1979 during a rafting trip and believed it to be from Flight 148Z. Bartholf was puzzled with the data tag, which was stamped with information that identified the plane as a U.S. Army Air Forces and Douglas Aircraft C-47A. Flight 148Z was a different type of aircraft, a Douglas Aircraft DC-3. Holm suspects the artifact is authentic. The two aircraft were similar — the C-47A was used in World War II as a military plane, while the DC-3 was considered its civilian equivalent. In his book, Holm said Flight 148Z could have been built as a C-47A during the war and converted to a non-military plane used by the Forest Service. Regardless, the aluminum tag sparked his interest in the crash. And Bartholf was the perfect contact. Her father, Art Seamans, led the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness's Moose Creek Ranger District in 1979. He had ordered the ill-fated aircraft for a training that was planned at the remote ranger station. Bartholf and her mother and sister were slated to be on Flight 148Z. 'Fortunately, we flew in on an earlier flight, on a Cessna 206, with a local air service,' Bartholf told the Statesman in an email. 'Knowing that we could have been on the plane has and will forever haunt me. God had a different plan for us.' When the DC-3 took off from Grangeville on June 11, 1979, it carried 10 passengers, two pilots and two dogs. All the passengers sat along the lefthand side of the plane, while cargo was arranged on the right. One of the survivors, then-17-year-old Moose Creek assistant station guard Bryant Stringham, later told Holm he recalled watching the scenery of the Idaho wilderness from the windows across the aircraft as his beagle, Beetle, seemed agitated and cocked his head back and forth at the engine across the aisle. Holm said halfway into the 30-minute flight, the pilots noticed an issue with the engine on the left side of the plane, which had overheated. The pilots turned it off, he said, knowing the airplane was certified to fly on a single engine if it had to. Within about a minute, the right engine exploded in front of the passengers' eyes and fell away from the plane. The pilots fought to land the plane in the Selway as rafters and hikers — including a Spokesman-Review photographer who snapped a famous photo — watched its descent. Only three people made it out of the plane: Stringham; helitack firefighter Charlie Dietz, 26; and Nez Perce National Forest engineer Andy Taylor, 59. Taylor died of injuries from the crash as Williams' smokejumper team administered first aid at the scene. Both dogs, Bess and Beetle, also survived. Beetle was found by a hiker and returned to Stringham, who, after helping the other two surviving passengers, went for help. He rode on horseback to the Moose Creek Ranger Station before being put on another plane back to Grangeville with Beetle. The Army National Guard airlifted Dietz, who was badly injured in the crash, by helicopter to Spokane. The smokejumper team had settled down to camp for the night, and some of them sheltered Bess and built a fire to keep her comfortable. A helicopter took Bess back to Grangeville the next day. It was the last Williams heard of the dog until he read Holm's book. Bess had belonged to Catherine 'Tykie' Hodgin, who was flying out to staff the fire lookout at Shissler Peak. Hodgin died in the crash. Bess was treated for a fractured leg and adopted by Hodgin's friend and ex-husband, Dan Hodgin, Holm said in the book. That day, Williams' smokejumper team was told to return to base in Missoula, Montana. But Williams and four others asked to stay. 'We didn't have any idea what we would be up against, most of us,' Williams told the Statesman in a phone interview. He remained in Moose Creek for a week, initially recovering aircraft debris but soon recovering the bodies of the victims. He worked alongside employees from other Forest Service districts, including Moose Creek, where many of the victims were already well-known. The remote area was one of few wilderness districts in the Forest Service at the time, and the primitive requirements there forced employees to work closely and forged a deep sense of pride in their work, Williams said. The wilderness proved especially challenging when it came to removing the remaining wreckage of the airplane from the fast-moving Selway River. Officials leaned on two Moose Creek employees who had built many of the primitive-style bridges in the wilderness area, for a solution. Holm said the pair crafted 'block and tackle' pulley systems that helped lift both aircraft engines, the tail and the wing from the river. Holm's book delves into the Forest Service investigation that identified what went wrong with both engines — a series of 'very poor maintenance' and other repair and inspection errors for which no individual or agency ever took responsibility, Holm said. He wove the technical aviation story alongside the stories of the people who were lost, those who survived and the dozens more who were impacted by the crash. Williams and Bartholf said they were taken back to June 1979 as they spoke with Holm, and again when they read 'In Selway Shadows' and saw the incident from other perspectives. For Bartholf, it was an emotional journey that reminded her of summers spent on the Moose Creek Ranger District with her family. She shared documents with Holm that her parents had saved, including funeral programs, letters to victims' families and her father's handwritten manifest for the flight. She said it was 'surreal' to read about her family's experiences but applauded Holm's ability to bring Moose Creek to life and show the human element of a story that, until now, had only been told in bits and pieces. Williams said he recently met with another smokejumper from the crew that responded on the day of the crash to discuss the book. The men talked about how the book brought back details they'd forgotten in the decades since the crash, and taught them things they never knew — like what happened to Bess. 'It was in some sense sort of enlightening in one way and sort of sad in another,' Williams said. 'I know more now about the people who died on that aircraft than I did on the day the rescue took place. The book introduced me to those individuals who I'd never known.'
Boston Globe
4 days ago
- Business
- Boston Globe
Facing an ‘existential threat,' a Vermont business helped take on Trump's tariffs
Although Terry Precision Cycling manufactures much of its merchandise in Spokane, Wash., it also imports materials and finished goods from China, Taiwan, Vietnam, El Salvador, Italy and the Philippines, said Nik Holm, its president. President Trump has sharply increased tariffs on all those countries, creating what Holm called 'an existential threat' to his company. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up So he decided to join four other US businesses in filing a lawsuit challenging the legality of those tariffs, which Advertisement 'To have the best chance of survival was to join up here,' Holm told the Globe, noting the high tariffs Trump slapped on China added nearly $50 to the cost of a Caicos short. He was forced to pass most of that cost onto his customers, hiking the retail price to $199.95 from an anticipated $165. 'When you're up against the wall ...there was no hesitancy for me personally because as president I knew it was the best path forward for our company to have our best footing,' Holm said of joining the lawsuit against Trump. Advertisement In the suit filed by the Liberty Justice Center, a libertarian public interest law firm, and a second one filed by 12 Democratic state attorneys general, the US Court of International Trade Wednesday ruled Trump's tariffs are illegal. The ruling, which is a blow to Trump's aggressive trade policy, was then temporarily halted by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and could ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court. White House officials have said they believe Trump's tariff authority ultimately will be upheld. But Holm remains optimistic the courts will quash the higher levies. 'We're a small company dealing with global supply chain disruptions and rising costs caused by these tariffs that shouldn't have been in there in the first place,' he said. The ruling helps him believe that 'we're going to come through have better clarity on the other side.' Nik Holm, president of Terry Precision Cycling. (Terry Precision Cycling) Terry Precision Cycling There's been little clarity up to this point. The 16-employee company has scrambled to keep up with Trump's constant changes to tariff rates while trying to find alternative sources for the unique materials in its products. 'We haven't been working on innovation the last couple of months,' he said. 'We've been working on tariff mitigation and sourcing products from other channels.' Holm declined to say who he voted for in the 2024 election, but said his politics weren't involved in the decision to join the suit. 'This wasn't a political move in the sense that we were going after the Trump administration,' he said. 'We were going after the survival... of our company.' Advertisement Terry Precision Cycling is located in progressive Burlington, but its customers are from around the country and Holm said there has been some backlash in the chat section of its website for joining the lawsuit. 'That's even more of a reason that we need to stick our neck out there because somebody has to do it,' Holm said. The company is used to paying tariffs. Even before Trump took office in January, the base tariff rate on its imported biking tops was 32 percent, Holm said. But the dramatically increases from Trump were an unforeseen hit. Holm said he started the year targeting $50,000 in operating income. The tariffs have added $45,000 to his costs. And if they stay in place, the hit will be $1.2 million next year. 'That just would not be sustainable,' he said. " And obviously all that would have to be somehow passed to the consumer or adjusted supply chains." But adjusting supply chains in such a specialized business and doing more domestic manufacturing is not easy. One of the company's product lines used to be made in the United States, but the manufacturer couldn't find enough workers to do the sewing so production moved to China, Holm said. And even for the products Terry Precision Cycling makes in Spokane, all the high-end fabrics they use come from abroad. 'El Salvador, China, Italy, a number of European countries mills that just don't exist in this country,' he said. The K-L Manufacturing facility in Spokane, Wash., which makes products for Terry Precision Cycling of Burlington, Vt. (Terry Precision Cycling) Terry Precision Cycling Trump has said the tariffs are designed to bring more manufacturing back to the United States. But Holm said it would take years to develop factories that can produce those materials domestically. Advertisement 'That would take quite some time and quite some investment in infrastructure and... some incentives to build out [to produce] the fabric and chamois and elastic and zippers and everything that goes into the garments we build,' he said. 'That would be a big feat for the country to do, to say, 'Hey, we're going to make this all in the United States.' ' And were that even possible, the cost of domestically-produced materials would be much higher., Holm said. The lower cost of its goods from China has helped offset the higher cost of manufacturing others in Spokane, he said. Doing it all in the United States would mean substantial price increases for consumers. In the meantime, Holm has been trying to find ways to reduce the cost of the tariffs. 'We look at our Philippine supplier and say, 'What else can you do? Can you do more to take away from the Chinese made goods?' ' he said. One of his Chinese manufacturers is building a factory in Cambodia, but Trump increased tariffs on that country as well. Like many US businesses, Terry Precision Cycling is just trying to keep its head above water as the tariff issue plays out in court and in negotiations between the Trump administration and foreign trading partners. 'It's a lot of uncertainty for sure,' Holm said. 'We and everybody else are stuck between a rock and a hard place currently.' Jim Puzzanghera can be reached at
The National
27-05-2025
- Sport
- The National
How rejected court appeal could benefit forgotten Celtic man
The 22-year-old is currently on loan from Celtic at MLS outfit Los Angeles FC. Holm joined the club in January of this year and has made five appearances since. Read more: This weekend, his team take on Mexican outfit Club America in a play-off to determine who will play at the FIFA Club World Cup this summer. Club Leon of Liga MX originally qualified for the tournament, although its ownership structure violated FIFA rules that prohibit more than one team from having the same owners (Leon and fellow Liga MX team Pachuca are both owned by Grupo Pachuca). Earlier this month, it was then announced that the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) had rejected the appeals of that ruling, and that 'the team to be admitted as a replacement for Club Leon will be determined through a play-off match between LAFC (runners-up to Club Leon in the 2023 Concacaf Champions Cup) and Club America (top-ranked team in the FIFA Club World Cup confederation ranking at the conclusion of the 2024 edition of the Concacaf Champions Cup, the last season taken into account for clubs to qualify for the FIFA Club World Cup 2025)'. The match between Holm's LAFC and Club America takes place in the early hours of this Sunday. Should they emerge victorious, they will be in Group D, which is made up of Chelsea, Flamengo, and ES Tunis.
USA Today
23-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Now focused on boxing, Holly Holm aims for title fights vs. Amanda Serrano or Katie Taylor
Now focused on boxing, Holly Holm aims for title fights vs. Amanda Serrano or Katie Taylor Fomer UFC champion Holly Holm has big plans for her return to boxing. Holly Holm's return to boxing is more than just a trip down memory lane or a way to collect a paycheck. The former UFC champion is taking her comeback to the "sweet science" very seriously and plans to fight for a major title against some of the biggest names today in women's boxing. Holm (33-2-3), who returns to the ring against Yolanda Vega(10-0) on Jake Paul's Most Valuable Promotions event on June 28, wants to fight top stars Katie Taylor or Amanda Serrano. "I don't ever look past who I'm fighting right now," Holm said on "The Ariel Helwani Show." "She's undefeated, maybe she doesn't have quite the experience, but she's undefeated coming in, she's tough, and I want to do well there as far as my immediate goal. But yeah, I'd like to fight for a title and then be able to fight Serrano or Taylor after that." Serrano and Taylor are scheduled to meet in a trilogy bout for the undisputed super lightweight title on July 11 in New York. Both Serrano and Taylor are considered two of the biggest stars in women's boxing today. Holm's return to boxing for the first time in over a decade comes on the heels of a failed transition from the UFC to GFL. Holm was granted her release by the UFC in January and signed with GLF shortly after. GFL canceled its inaugural events, and there's little optimism of a future launch. "It's one of those things, I was hopeful, and I put my work in thinking we have a fight coming up, but I also don't throw all my eggs in one basket," Holm explained. "I want to make sure I'm always training and be ready. One thing about training my whole life and just being dedicated is that I've been able to have options. So GFL, that whole fight got cancelled, and unknown if it's ever going to happen, I'm thankful that I have the options to go back and pursue boxing and be able to be on a big card out in California. I'm excited for it." Although a return to boxing might seem like a Plan B for Holm, she had been wanting to make a return to the ring for quite some time. Holm started boxing professionally in 2002 and competed a total of 38 times. Throughout that span she won and defended multiple titles, and built an impressive resume, impressive enough to get her inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame back in 2022. "I wanted to do both regardless, if I could," Holm explained of her transition from MMA back to boxing. "There were already some days I was boxing anyway when (GFL) was questionable on the fence. So I've kind of been just training and focusing on boxing for the last couple of months. It something I wanted to do, To come back and box at 135. I never got to fight at 135 before over 10 years of boxing. I never fought at 35, but the majority of MMA has been at 35."
Chicago Tribune
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Evanston Township's Class of '25, ‘last of COVID generation,' graduates
On May 18, Evanston Township High School launched more than 940 graduates at commencement at Northwestern University's Welsh-Ryan Arena at McGaw Memorial Hall in Evanston. Keith A. Robinson, associate principal for educational services at ETHS, coordinates graduation. For the Wildkits seniors of the Class of 2025, he said, 'This class is truly special. They're the first to complete all four years of high school after the COVID-19 pandemic, really the last of what many have called the 'COVID generation.' 'Their journey has been anything but typical, and they've shown nothing but resilience, heart, and growth. 'I've had the privilege of knowing so many of them throughout their high school careers, and their stories continue to inspire me,' Robinson said. When Max William Dahan of Skokie walked into the arena, he spotted enthusiastic waves from family, including great aunt Deborah Bono and Max's mother Rachel Dahan. About Max, Rachel Dahan said, 'He's worked really, really hard so we're so proud of him.' The program included traditional commencement moments. Some students decorated the tops of their caps or mortarboards. Commencement included keynote speaker Anders Holm from the ETHS Class of 1999. Holm is a movie actor, producer and writer. Holm used humor while giving the Class of 2025 practical advice, such as encouraging them to learn how to cook in order to be healthy and self-reliant, instead of ordering costly restaurant food from online quick delivery services. 'Let's talk about you,' Holm said to the graduating seniors. 'You are 100% unique. Do not confuse being unique with being special. 'You gotta earn special,' Holm said. 'But you are you and no one else is. 'That's your value-add in the world, you just need to figure out where you can add the most being who you are.' Jeanine Bahanuzi, who plans on becoming a lawyer, offered senior class remarks. 'I want to contribute to change,' Bahanuzi said. 'We often let our weaknesses and emotions become an excuse to give up instead of an excuse to take on a challenge and we fail to realize that some of our greatest strengths are developed through the training and resilience of our weaknesses. 'But, Class of 2025,' Bahanuzi said, 'I don't see that for us. I see perseverance, I see determination, I see grit, and most of all, I see greatness,' Bahanuzi added. 'I hope you not only remember ETHS for the community you created, but the community it created for you.'
