The dense forests near West Yellowstone, Montana, concealed the wreckage of a small plane until an unlikely beacon — a smartwatch worn by one of the victims — helped search-and-rescue crews locate the crash site, officials said Monday.
Responding crews found all three people aboard the aircraft dead, the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
The victims were Rodney Conover, 60, and Madison Conover, 23, both of Tennessee, and Kurt Enoch Robey, 55, of Utah, according to the office.
The plane departed from West Yellowstone Airport on Thursday, just before midnight, but never reached its destination, the sheriff’s office said.
On Friday afternoon, West Yellowstone Dispatch received a call from the US Department of Tranportation’s Aero Division alerting local authorities that the aircraft’s location was unknown.
Minutes later, two planes were sent to search for the missing aircraft and, guided by location data from a smartwatch worn by one of the passengers, found the crash site just south of the town of West Yellowstone, the sheriff’s office said.
The search planes spotted the wreckage from air, describing it as “crashed in dense timber,” the office said. Ground crews navigated the rugged wilderness to reach the site.
Responders confirmed all three occupants had died. Their remains were airlifted and turned over to the county coroner.
The aircraft was a version of the Piper Cherokee, a small, single-engine plane, according to the accident notice for the crash in the Federal Aviation Administration’s aviation safety database. It was carrying two crew members and one passenger, the report shows.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the cause of the crash. CNN has reached out to both agencies for comment.
Weather in the area at the time included gusty winds and chilly overnight temperatures.
Sheriff Dan Springer extended his “deepest condolences” to the victims’ families.
