Authorities name pilot killed in mysterious crash in Kootenai County

Authorities have identified the pilot who died in a plane crash Saturday afternoon in Kootenai County as Kenneth D. Chapman, 70, of Spokane.

Chapman’s body was found in the wreckage of a downed plane about 25 yards up a steep embankment.

“Chapman had been flying alone in his 1966 Cessna 185 airplane when, for an unknown reason, he crashed into a thickly wooded hillside,” the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

A driver alerted authorities after spotting the wreckage off Forest Service Road 794 in the Horsehaven area, about 40 miles east of Coeur d’Alene. A backcountry deputy and volunteer county search-and-rescue personnel were patrolling within a mile of the crash and arrived just after 3 p.m.

Chapman’s family has been notified, and the crash remains under investigation.