A 700-foot-long freighter carrying grain lost power, sounded a warning and began heading toward the mall. The freighter barely missed several ships and the casino riverboat. It plowed bow-first into The Wharf. This section of the river is heavily used; about 300 ships a day pass through it.
A large section of the mall and 30 rooms in an adjoining hotel were extensively damaged. "It's almost like a pancake, about a football field long," City Councilman Dale Green said of the devastation. "Right where there was a wharf there is water now."
"The ground started shaking like an earthquake, and everyone started running out," said Joe DiStefano, who had been in the mall. "People began jumping into the river."
The city's mayor, Dale Marques, said 60 people were injured trying to escape, with only one hurt seriously enough to be hospitalized overnight. City Councilwoman Anne Jones, who had been at the scene, said the first people taken to hospitals were treated for possible heart attacks or injuries from trampling.
Crater Lake, in southwestern Oregon, has a surface area of about 21 square miles. It fills the caldera of an extinct volcano. It is the deepest lake in the United States and one of the deepest in the world.
The crash happened about a mile from shore at 9:15 a.m. Sunday, according to Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Dick Meyer.
George Casey, who lived in the Seattle area, was the pilot. Casey had one passenger, Ed Tolleners. Meyer did not know Tolleners' address. Both men, who were traveling to an aircraft trade show in Las Vegas, Nev., died in the crash, Meyer said.
Meyer said that skies were clear at the time of the crash and that the cause of the crash was not known.
The helicopter sank in 1,500 feet of water, Meyer said. He said that the lake's depth would make it difficult or impossible to recover the aircraft or find the bodies. Casey was a sales representative for American Eurocopter.
A park ranger, Kent Taylor, said several visitors to Crater Lake National Park witnessed the crash.
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