Search intensifies for missing pilot

Curry County Sheriff's detectives in Oregon are still looking for a local man, Joshua Nathan Cohen, 27, after his plane reportedly crashed Tuesday in the Chetco River near Crescent City. Cohen is presumed dead after the United States Coast Guard discovered the body of his passenger, Crescent City resident Maria Flores, 23. However, Cohen and his plane remained missing as of Friday. A dive team is scheduled to search an area today where the sheriff's department located an oil spill, about half a mile from where Flores' body was found Tuesday. Curry County Sheriff Mark Metcalf believes this effort will ultimately provide all the answers to the plane crash. "We have not found him yet, but I have a deep water dive team to deploy tomorrow," Metcalf said Friday morning. "We have located an oil slick on the ocean and we believe the plane and the pilot will be located at that spot. I have pretty high confidence the aircraft is in that same vicinity." Hearing the tragic news, family members and friends have tried to assist in the recovery of their loved one, including one of Cohen's longtime friends, Steve Metzgar of Rocklin, who said he drove to Brookings, Ore. this week to search the area's shoreline. He returned Friday. "I had hoped that I could find him," Metzgar said in a quiet voice. "I spent my time searching the shore around Brookings for as long as I could." Friends say Cohen, a current Marysville resident, grew up in the south Placer County area. He's father, Ned Cohen, still lives in Loomis. Cohen attended area schools before taking classes at Sierra College and has many friends still in the area. A huge love of computers, many of Cohen's friends have already set up memorial Web sites, posting photos, updates about his search and messages and prayers to his family. People like Metzgar are not surprised at the outpouring of emotion. "Josh was there for everybody and would go out of his way to help anyone," Metzgar said. "He was such a unique kind of character. There's not many times in a person' s life when you meet someone like him. There's this extreme intelligence, plus his extreme philanthropic nature. "The only thing Josh didn't do is sleep or go on vacation."According to the Curry County Sheriff's Department, it appears early Tuesday morning Cohen was flying his personal aircraft, a single-engine, low wing 1983 model Glasair, from Portland to Crescent City, located in Del Norte County in Northern California.Metcalf said as the plane approached the local airport, it disappeared from radar tracking, just offshore near the mouth of the Chetco River. "Typically what happens with these single-engine planes is they check in with flight control and ask to be put on flight track (which tracks the planes and communicates with the pilots) so they can check with the them," Metcalf explained. "When the pilot gets close to landing, the pilot says, 'I'm here. I'm safe. All is well.' But that wasn't the case."He (Cohen) said 'I have my airport in sight,' his flight track was turned off... and shortly after it looks like he went into a gradual spiral downward."Although four helicopters, a lifeboat and an 87-foot cutter were dispatched to search the area, no additional evidence was discovered until the following day when Metcalf said a CHP helicopter observed what appeared to be oil or fuel coming to the ocean surface. The location is about half-mile from where Flores' body was found. This is where the dive team will search this weekend. Although the water in the area is about 80 to 90 feet deep and lighting will be poor, Metcalf said he's confident these efforts will find something. A friend of Cohen's for eight years, Metzgar said he will always remember Cohen as a computer genus with a humungous heart."As his dad would say, Josh couldn't say no to anyone," Metzgar said. "He was one of the most intelligent people you'd ever meet and he put that to good use. He did so many charitable things." Metzgar said Cohen got into flying two years ago and had already traveled to many places. "He put incredible (flying) hours in," Metzgar said. "Just in the past couple years, he had so many hours of flying around the world." For more on the search for Cohen, read Wednesday's Press-Tribune. Jamie Trump can be reached at jamiet@goldcountrymedia.com.