Search continues for missing plane, 4 people
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MOIESE — The hunt for a small plane lost Sunday afternoon with four people aboard continued into Wednesday morning as search and rescue teams combed a huge search area just west of the National Bison Range and south along the Flathead River to its junction with the Clark Fork River. An electrical storm Tuesday evening halted the search overnight and put telephone lines out of service at the National Bison Range Visitor Center, where Lake and Sanders Counties' Sheriff’s Offices had set up a unified command center, Lake County Sheriff's spokeswoman Carey Cooley said.
Without land lines, communication among searchers and authorities was limited to radios and mobile phones in an area with spotty cell service. But searchers on ATVs, sonar-equipped boats and 10 aircraft headed out again first thing Wednesday morning, Cooley said.
The missing aircraft, a blue and white 1968 Piper Arrow, took off early Sunday afternoon from Glacier Park International Airport, apparently on a sightseeing trip. Melissa Weaver and Erika Hoefer, both of Kalispell and reporters for the Daily Inter-Lake, and two Missoula men, pilot Sonny Kless and Brian Williams, were on board.
When Weaver’s roommate reported her missing Monday morning, Flathead County launched a massive search for the aircraft. By Monday night, investigators had reevaluated the plane’s last known position and moved the search headquarters to the National Bison Range in Moiese.
The plane’s last known GPS coordinates place it at 300 feet above ground — far too low for the FAA minimum of 500 feet for small aircraft — just west of the National Bison Range at 4:02 p.m. Sunday, Cooley said. Several eyewitnesses who spotted the plane Sunday afternoon said it may have been flying even lower than 300 feet, she added.
“All of the reports have been of a blue and white aircraft flying extremely low … in the (Flathead) River area,” Cooley said.
There were no known mechanical problems with the plane, she said. While the plane does have a transponder, “it’s a fairly old one,” Cooley said. “I’ve been told a search plane would have to be right over (the missing plane) to get a ping.”
Lake and Sanders Counties' Sheriff’s Offices, search and rescue teams from both counties and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees are all involved in the search.
