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Aircraft search scaled back under threat of more bad weather

The week-long search for an airplane missing since Dec. 1 was scaled back Friday (Dec. 6) because of concern over approaching storms and the safety of searchers.

The missing airplane with five occupants was reported missing after radar contact was lost about a mile east of the remote and rugged area near Johnson Creek Airstrip south of Yellow Pine, 50 miles northeast of Cascade.

Poor visibility forced the grounding of search aircraft Friday, leaving a limited number of ground searchers working the area until the weather clears and enables safer conditions.

The aircraft, an early 1980s-model, 6-seat, BE-36 Beech Bonanza, left Baker City, Ore., bound for Butte, Mont., shortly before noon Sunday (Dec. 1). Its last known contact was in the early afternoon near Johnson Creek. Helicopters from the Idaho Army National Guard, the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and a private helicopter assisted this week, along with five planes from the Civil Air Patrol and one from the ITD Division of Aeronautics.

Ground searches used tracked vehicles, all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles to comb the area. The ground search included 18 members of the Idaho Mountain Search and Rescue unit. Search operations were coordinated from a special command post at the Valley County Emergency Operations Center in Cascade.

Others assisting in the search included the Valley County Sheriff’s Office, U.S. Forest Service, Idaho Fish and Game and Idaho Bureau of Homeland Security.

The Blackhawk and Lakota helicopters were unavailable for the search after Wednesday, but two Apache helicopters, an H-60 from Spokane and a Bell 407 (privately owned and operated) from Hailey — participated Thursday. They were unable to search from the air Friday because of weather conditions.

A five-mile search radius originally was established, but it was expanded based on projections of the possible path of the missing plane.

The Civil Air Patrol also used forward-looking infrared radar. The equipment, brought in from Wyoming, detects ground temperatures and can pick up anomalies, such as sunlight reflecting off metal. The number of agencies and individuals involved in the search increased daily, with more than 60 involved at the height of the operation.

A faint emergency locator transmitter signal was thought to be picked up Tuesday, but could not be verified by other aircraft searching the same area later. The signal may have been pinging off mountainous terrain, rendering it unreliable.

Dale Smith was listed as pilot of the missing aircraft. Passengers included son Daniel Smith and his wife Sheree Smith, and daughter Amber Smith with her fiancé Jonathon Norton, BYU-Idaho (Rexburg) students who plan to marry next month.

Inclement weather, especially later in the week, and diminishing daylight hours hampered search efforts. The white airplane with maroon trim makes it difficult to spot from the air. Storms dropped snow on several occasions in the region, and temperatures have fallen below 0-degrees Fahrenheit in the mountains.