Wreckage of missing plane found in Utah mountains, 5 dead

[News_Editor]

BOISE, IDAHO (BNO NEWS) -- The wreckage of a small plane with five people on board that vanished in the central Idaho mountains nearly 1.5 month ago was discovered Friday by friends and relatives conducting a private search, officials and the pilot's wife said on Saturday. There were no survivors.

The aircraft, a six-seat BE-36 Beech Bonanza, had departed Baker City in eastern Oregon just after 11 a.m. local time on December 1 and was heading for the city of Butte in Montana when contact was lost after the pilot reported engine trouble. Its last-known position was on the western edge of the rugged Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho.

Janis Smith, the wife of 51-year-old pilot Dale Smith, said the wreckage was found on Friday on the last day of a 3-day private search in the region. "Dellon (Dale's brother) and his crew spent the entire day, from 3 a.m. onward, trying to find the right location. The snow was very deep and the going was very slow," she said.

Janis Smith said her husband's brother found the wreckage less than two hours before the team would have needed to wrap up their search. "I am so grateful that Dellon was the one who found his brother. The plane is in pieces and buried in snow," she said. "They have not yet found all the parts. However, we do know my family members on the plane died quickly and painlessly. They did not suffer."

The Valley County Sheriff's Office confirmed there appeared to be no survivors, but said recovery efforts would be delayed by severe weather conditions.

The official air and ground search was hampered by poor visibility, snowfall and sub-zero temperatures (below -17.7 degrees Celsius) until it was called off on December 12. The search included helicopters from the Idaho Army National Guard, Customs and Border Protection, a private helicopter, several Civil Air Patrol planes and aircraft from the state's Division of Aeronautics.

In addition to pilot Dale Smith, other victims of the crash were identified as his son Daniel and daughter Amber. Also on board were Daniel's wife Sheree and Amber's fiancé Jonathon.

(Copyright 2014 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. Info: [email protected].)

[NeverSure]

This is so sad and so unnecessary. A private, single engine, gasoline engine plane, loaded near or at max should never be flown over that extremely high and rugged terrain in that kind of weather or at that time of year. There is a good reason those are called the Sawtooth mountains.

From Baker City, Oregon to Butte Montana is all cold weather winter country anyway. They were basically flying 100% over the Rocky Mountains.

I call this pilot error simply for making the decision to go, and the passengers probably wouldn't know better.

So many people have lost so many loved ones and all of it unnecessary. RIP and the best to the families.

[F430murci]

This is so sad and so unnecessary. A private, single engine, gasoline engine plane, loaded near or at max should never be flown over that extremely high and rugged terrain in that kind of weather or at that time of year. There is a good reason those are called the Sawtooth mountains.

From Baker City, Oregon to Butte Montana is all cold weather winter country anyway. They were basically flying 100% over the Rocky Mountains.

I call this pilot error simply for making the decision to go, and the passengers probably wouldn't know better.

So many people have lost so many loved ones and all of it unnecessary. RIP and the best to the families.

I thought I heard he lost an engine. Bonanzas are pretty powerful for a single engine. He was in an 80s model or possibly a 36TC variation with a decent load capacity. I have taken 172s from Nashville to Pensacola with 4 many times and that only has 170 or hp. I think Bonanzas have somewhere around 300 to 325 and capacity of 5 passengers plus one crew.

You may be right depending in gear, but I wouldn't be so quick to cast blame on pilot error.

[NeverSure]

This is so sad and so unnecessary. A private, single engine, gasoline engine plane, loaded near or at max should never be flown over that extremely high and rugged terrain in that kind of weather or at that time of year. There is a good reason those are called the Sawtooth mountains.

From Baker City, Oregon to Butte Montana is all cold weather winter country anyway. They were basically flying 100% over the Rocky Mountains.

I call this pilot error simply for making the decision to go, and the passengers probably wouldn't know better.

So many people have lost so many loved ones and all of it unnecessary. RIP and the best to the families.

I thought I heard he lost an engine. Bonanzas are pretty powerful for a single engine. He was in an 80s model or possibly a 36TC variation with a decent load capacity. I have taken 172s from Nashville to Pensacola with 4 many times and that only has 170 or hp. I think Bonanzas have somewhere around 300 to 325 and capacity of 5 passengers plus one crew.

You may be right depending in gear, but I wouldn't be so quick to cast blame on pilot error.

He had just one engine. He bet the farm on it in the winter, over some of the coldest and highest and most rugged country in the US. He lost that bet.

You, flying from Nashville to Pensacola were over mostly warm and low land, with no need to go high, and usually you could spot a place to land if your engine quit if you were VFR. I would never take a single engine plane into serious IFR conditions, period.

Pilots who live and fly in the mountainous regions of the West (we hope) develop a whole different perspective as to what's safe. This guy, in the dead of winter, took a plane load of people in a single engine aircraft right over the Rocky Mountains, and the price was several lives lost and families and friends devastated.

I content that it was his fault.

Peace.