End of Watch: 10/23/1998
Agency: U.S. Border Patrol
County: Whatcom County
Agent Panchison was killed when the Cessna 182 airplane he was piloting crashed in a rugged area on Sumas Mountain, approximately 17 miles south of the Canadian border. Agent Panchison, the only person on the plane, was checking an embedded motion sensor that had been tripped before the crash occurred. The canyon he was checking was a known drug and alien smuggling area. Agent Panchison had been with the border patrol for 21 years and was a former Marine fighter pilot.