WALLOWA COUNTY — The two men involved in a small-plane crash in the Wenaha area Friday, Jan. 26, have been released from the hospital and identified by the Wallowa County Sheriff’s Office.

The pilot and owner of the 1957 Piper Cub was Brian Rahn and his passenger was John Wick. Both are from the Joseph area.

The two were flying near the Wenaha Wildlife Area at a low altitude when the motor quit about 1:30 p.m. and they were forced to make an emergency landing, Undersheriff Billy Wells said.

He could not confirm that the motor quit, but said that appeared to be the case since the condition of the propeller indicated it probably wasn’t turning at the point of impact.

Bill Jepsen, a member of the Wallowa County Pilots Association, said the pilots group met Tuesday and discussed survivability and what they can do as pilots to be safe. They also discussed Rahn’s mishap.

“One side of the prop was bent and the other side was perfectly clean,” he said. “What caused (the engine failure), we don’t know.”

Wells said the crash was reported by an automated app on Rahn’s new Apple iPhone that calls 911 when it detects an impact such as the plane crash. Jepsen said Rahn had purchased the iPhone just a few weeks prior to the crash and it immediately alerted the Sheriff’s Office of the crash.

Airplanes have emergency locator transmitters but Rahn’s never went off, Jepsen said.

“Some of the locators are notorious for not being very reliable,” he said. Still, emergency responders “had the exact coordinates of where it was in just a few minutes after it happened,” thanks to the iPhone.

Both men in the plane were airlifted to the hospital in Lewiston, Idaho, where Rahn was treated for several days and Wick was treated for an ankle injury and released.

Jepsen said Life Flight found the crash site but was unable to land close to it and had to land some distance away. Medics climbed down to the plane and treated Rahn while awaiting a helicopter from Montana that had a winch with which it could lift the injured men. The men were rescued about 7 p.m., Jepsen said.

He said there also were several local people who attempted to get into the area on snowmobiles and arrived about the time the helicopter did.

Wells said the Sheriff’s Office and the National Transportation Safety Board will continue to investigate the accident.

Wells said that despite the age of the plane, it has been kept in good repair.

“Those things get rebuilt after so many hours,” he said.

Brian Rahn had purchased the iPhone that reported the crash weeks before the incident; the original online version of this story misstated when the phone had been purchased. The story has been corrected.