Dr. Bruce Cummings, who has had a dental practice in Enterprise since 2001, died in a plane crash in Umatilla County Sunday, Nov. 14. Cummings was piloting a green single-engine 1952 Bonanza V Tail from Walla Walla to Enterprise when the crash occurred.

A Civil Air Patrol crew flying over Umatilla County found the wreckage Monday northeast of Lake HumTePin (Indian Lake) on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. The crash site is about 34 miles southeast of Pendleton.

This morning FAA investigators are at the crash scene conducting their investigation, Tom Groat, tribal emergency management coordinator, said Tuesday. 

He said a volunteer firefighter and a wildlife police officer from the reservation were the first personnel at the site.

FFA reports indicate the plane dropped off radar at 10:30 a.m. Sunday. Cummings last transmission indicated that he was losing altitude at the rate of 2,600 feet per minute.

He had left Walla Walla Regional Airport at 9:30 a.m. Sunday and was reported missing that evening.

Umatilla County Sheriffs Office Search and Rescue originally coordinated ground searchers, with tribal emergency management, fire and police also deploying resources for the search. Groat said reservation fire and police personnel retrieved the body and secured the site for the FFA investigation.

Cummings, his wife, Marjorie, and two children moved to Wallowa County in 2001 when the couple bought the dental practice of the late Dr. Bryce Moffit after his retirement.

It was my understanding that he had his property in Enterprise for sale and was moving to the Walla Walla area,  Groat said.

Munselle-Rhodes Funeral Home in Milton-Freewater is in charge of funeral arrangements.