October 27 1997

ARTICLE TOOLS

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Nearly a dozen people made first-time professions of faith in Jesus Christ during memorial services for two Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) pilots killed in an airplane crash September 14 in Ecuador.

Missionary pilots Job Orellana and Daniel Osterhus died instantly when their Cessna 185 plane slammed into a 9,500-foot mountain between Shell and Ba𮱮 Orellana's brother Walter also died in the crash. The pilots had been involved in a search-and-rescue mission to locate a commercial Cessna airplane, which crashed in the same region the previous day, killing its two occupants.

The canyon they flew through is subject to heavy wind and turbulence, and aviation authorities believe both planes were caught in sudden downdrafts and thrown against the side of the mountain.

Job Orellana was an Ecuadorian missionary and president of Alas de Socorro, MAF's Ecuadorian affiliate. Osterhus grew up in Ecuador, the son of MAF missionaries. Walter Orellana was chair of the deacons and a teaching elder at the Evangelical Church in Shell. All three men were married and had children.