Two men killed in plane crash
Two men were killed Thursday afternoon when a single-engine plane crashed near North Idaho’s Lookout Pass ski resort, a half-mile west of the Montana state line.
Shoshone County Sheriff Chuck Reynalds declined to identify the men Thursday evening because one man’s next of kin hadn’t been notified, but he said both victims were from Western Washington. The plane was registered to the pilot.
The 1980 Cessna TU206G aircraft crashed about a half-mile from the Lookout Pass ski resort on a gravel road in a heavily wooded area, about 250 feet up a steep embankment from Interstate 90. Reynalds said the accident is believed to have happened between 1 and 2 p.m.
Reynalds said information was sketchy, but the passenger apparently had chartered the plane for a business trip.
The flight originated in Western Washington, and the plane refueled in Coeur d’Alene before continuing toward its destination in Missoula.
The plane appeared to have come down nose-first about 150 feet from where a wing clipped a tree branch. The nose was mangled almost beyond recognition.
Both wings were sheared off. One remained near the fuselage. The other was about 100 feet away.
Reynalds said the wreckage was discovered by a motorcyclist who was riding on the gravel road, which is on an abandoned railroad right of way.
The pilot evidently was using the standard practice of following the freeway through the mountains, “and the mountains creep up on them,” Reynalds said.
“It was foggy. … If they veer off the freeway a little bit, which is easy to do, they hit those trees.”
The crash occurred at the 6,200-foot elevation, about 500 feet below the highest point in the area.
It appeared the plane crashed into trees, lost a wing and plunged to the ground, Reynalds said.
“Twenty to 30 feet or more, they would have been clear,” he said.
A representative from the Spokane office of the Federal Aviation Administration made a preliminary assessment Thursday.
Reynalds posted deputies to guard the site until crash investigators from the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board arrive today.