The Rajneesh had several small
planes for their use, and, from what I understand, a couple of good pilots.
One night, mid-spring, I
received a call that a small aircraft had crashed just east of Antelope. It was believed to be one of the Rajneesh
planes as that was the route they took to fly into the ranch.
We had deputies responding to
the scene. I decided I would also
go.
The plane was flying at
night. The pilot had misjudged where he was relative
to the hill; the pilot was just a couple of feet too low when the plane hit the
ridge of the hill.
The plane, pilot and passenger
were then flung onto the top of the hill.
The first deputies on the scene
were given some off-road vehicles by some of the ranchers, to use to drive to
the crash scene. It was a mile or so out
of town and very steep terrain to the site.
It is not known exactly how fast
the plane was flying; we do know the plane flew into the hill at a high rate of
speed. Planes are flimsy and not made to
withstand crashes, especially one like this.
The deputies arrived at the
scene – which encompassed several square yards as the debris flew all over. The plane was demolished.
The plane was not the only thing
demolished; the two people in the plane were also destroyed – beyond
recognition. People, as the plane, are
not made to withstand this kind of trauma.
One of the deputies obtained the
wallet of the pilot which contained his identification. They also found the identification of the
passenger.
We left a deputy at the scene
until the FFA investigators could come in and do their investigation.
The next morning the remains of
the two people were taken into The Dalles.
While we were pretty sure these
were the right names, we had learned that the Rajneesh were not always honest
with us, so we had to take steps to get as good an identification as
possible.
Someone talked to the people at
the airport the plane flew out of and they knew the two people getting into the
plane, confirming the names on the identifications. Dental records would be attained etc. but we
felt we had enough information to contact family.
One of the things we have been
taught in death investigations is that it is best for the family if the family
can view the body – for identification but also so they can get closure. It can be very difficult for the family to
mentally accept the death of their loved one and not seeing the body can be
problematic for them.
For many it causes a great deal
of mental anguish and pain if they can’t get that closure.
But there are exceptions; this
was one of them.
We met with the wife and a
couple of other family members in our meeting room. The wife had been told, by the mortician,
that she should not see the remains. She
had tentatively confirmed who he was by his ring, but she wanted to see her
husband’s body.
She wanted our help to get him
to let her see her husband. As gently as
possible, the sergeant told her that she should remember the husband as he was -
the body was not recognizable. It took
time, but she eventually accepted his advice.
We will never know why the pilot
chose to fly to the ranch so late at night, well after sunset. We were told that he was their best pilot and
knew the approach better than anyone else.
This wasn’t like flying into a
major airport. Antelope only had a few
houses, the lighting was negligible. The
area he was flying into was like a black hole, no light at all.
The landing strip was surrounded
by hills, the air currents and the narrow approach getting into the ranch was
tricky, the pilot knew that. There were
no landing lights to guide him unto the runway.
When he hit the hill it was at
night and he could not see it. Since the
airstrip was not lighted, we are not sure how he could gauge the landing.
From everything we learned he
was a good pilot, dedicated and safe. It
didn’t and still doesn’t make sense that he flew to the ranch that night instead
of waiting for the next morning.
It was a tragic incident that
just compounded the local peoples’ concerns about what was happening in and
around the ranch.
How important was the trip to
cause him to throw caution to the wind to get his passenger to the ranch? We weren’t told.
2 Kings 5:5-8 And the king of
Syria said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he
departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of
gold, and ten changes of raiment.
6 And he brought the
letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come unto thee,
behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest
recover him of his leprosy.
7 And it came to pass,
when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said,
Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover
a man of his leprosy? wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a
quarrel against me.
8 And it was so, when
Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes,
that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him
come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in
Israel.
Remember the game of ‘rumor’ we
play – the one where someone makes a statement in the ear of someone else and
that person tells the next, and so on until the last person says what they have
heard – and it doesn’t match the first statement? I am reminded of that with these verses of
Naaman’s trip to Israel.
A little maid tells his wife
there is a man in Israel that can help Naaman.
His wife tells him. He goes to
the King – now it could have been a face to face, since Naaman was well thought
of, but it could have also gone through and emissary since the disease Naaman
was suffering forced the patient into isolation from the rest of society.
Who knows what was in that
letter after the information had passed through so many people – but it was
obvious that the King of Israel thought that this was just a preliminary to
justify the King of Syria invading Israel.
To him, the letter said that HE
was the one to heal Naaman. He knew he
could not do anything about the illness and became afraid.
We sometimes read the Bible in
the same way. There are verses that are
directed at us, there are verses that are not.
We must discern the difference.
Sometimes the verses seem to
have a different meaning than what they are portraying – and it those cases we
cannot be too far off to read them as if they mean what they say. If there is a hidden meaning God will help
reveal it to us.
Those revelations may come over
time, or through the thorough reading of the Word which may clarify the verses
and of course there are scholars of the Bible that have diligently search the
scriptures and can show us what they mean.
Even so, it is still up to us to
be sure what is being said about the scriptures is in-line with God’s Word.
2 Peter 3:16-17 As also in all his epistles, speaking
in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which
they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other
scriptures, unto their own destruction.
17
Ye
therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also,
being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own
stedfastness.
There are those who demean the
Bible by using this same game, ‘rumor,’ to show that since much of the early
Word was handed down from one generation to another by word of mouth, not in a
written form mistakes could have been made in the process.
But that is not the case. The Bible proves itself; historically it has
been shown to be correct even though it was thought to be wrong by historians –
only to have to ‘eat’ their words. There
are other issues over the space of time have been shown to be accurate.
But the Bible wasn’t written as
God wanted it written:
2 Timothy
3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of
God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction in righteousness:
Jesus proclaimed, several times,
that if the leaders of the Jewish Nation would search these Scriptures they
would see that He indeed was the Messiah:
John
5:19 Search the scriptures; for in them ye
think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of
me.
The king of Israel was perplexed
and afraid. When Elisha heard of the
cause he told him to send Naaman to him.
Every day we are inundated with
information. Much of it conflicting and
so often hard to learn what is true and what is fabricated.
The world has its own agenda, it
wants to exclude God from all things.
ALL things. Satan is hard at work
and he will twists words, ideas and even ‘evidence’ to appear that his view is
the correct one.
Sometimes it IS difficult to
know what is right in this world, bad things sound good, while God’s Word is
denounced as evil.
None-the-less the way to
understand what this world is all about, how it affects us, how we are to act
and react are written and covered in the Bible: scripture ( that )is given by inspiration of
God.
God reaches out to us in His
Word. We can count on Him. Both the Old and New Testament tell us He
loves us, He will have mercy on us and that His desire is that we become His
children.
He has given us the path to Him
and His righteousness through His Word which culminated in His Son dying on the
cross for us.
When in doubt, instead of
wringing our hands and saying, “woe is me,” we need to go to Him and allow Him
to deal with our situation.
As there were prophets of God in
the Old Testament days; as there were Apostles and leaders of the church in the
New Testament times, there are men and women who have been given the gifts that
God will use to heal us; to lead us in a life that is pleasing to Him.
His Holy Spirit is always ready
to guide and direct us – we just have to trust Him. It was not in the power of the King to heal
Naaman, it was through the prophet who obeyed the commands of God that he would
find healing and rest.
Neither the government, nor the
world can do for us what God has reserved for Himself to do – and He often
chooses His people to demonstrate His power and authority in their lives.
Elias was a powerful spiritual
leader, used of God. But he was just a
man. A man who dedicated himself to God,
to listen and do what God told him, not for his own edification, but that God
would be glorified.
We can be like him, we just need
to open up our hearts so we receive from God; so that He can be glorified in all
we do.
Later, Art :-)
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