Plane crash kills pilot south of Coeur d’Alene

One man is dead after the small plane he was flying crashed about seven miles south of Coeur d’Alene. The single-engine Cessna 210 crashed a few minutes after 5 p.m. in a wooded, brushy area of Red Hog Ridge, near Loffs Bay Road and about a mile east of U.S. Highway 95, said Major Dan Mattos of the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department. The man’s identity and details of his planned route will not be released until his family has been notified of his death, Mattos said. The Sheriff’s Department were alerted to the crash at 5:08 p.m. by an emergency device that typically activates upon impact, Mattos said. A Spokane County sheriff’s helicopter helped find the downed aircraft. The pilot was pronounced dead at the scene. No one else appears to have been on board. The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash, Mattos said. Sheriff’s deputies will secure the scene overnight; investigators are expected to arrived by mid-morning.