Bodies recovered from plane crash site

HELENA – Teams recovered the bodies of two Missoula men and two Kalispell, Mont., newspaper reporters from the site of a small plane crash Thursday as federal investigators began to look at piecing together what happened.

The recovery teams had a difficult time making progress through dense forest to the site on a remote, rugged hillside near the National Bison Range, Lake County sheriff’s spokeswoman Carey Cooley said.

Accompanying them was a saw team from the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ fire division. The crew cleared enough trees and underbrush in the area to allow a helicopter to hoist the bodies at about 8 p.m., Cooley said. The remains have been sent to the state crime lab in Missoula.

Authorities found the wreckage Wednesday about 80 miles south of Kalispell.

On board were pilot Sonny Kless, 25, Brian Williams, 28, and reporters Erika Hoefer, 27, and Melissa Weaver, 23. Kless recently graduated from the University of Montana, Williams was a law student there and a native of Coeur d’Alene, and the women were reporters for the Daily Inter Lake of Kalispell.