12/5/2013
Reed Hollinshead
ITD Communication
208-334-8881
reed.hollinshead@itd.idaho.gov
Additional aircraft to join search for missing Valley County airplane
Contact: Valley County Information Center: 208-382-7319
CASCADE - Four new aircraft will join the search this afternoon (Thursday, Dec. 5) for the airplane that has been missing since Sunday.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has deployed one helicopter from their base in Spokane, Wash., to assist in locating the missing plane. Two Idaho Army National Guard Apache Helicopters with infrared capabilities are expected to join the search at approximately 2 p.m. One additional helicopter, a Bell 407, coordinated through the Idaho Transportation Department’s Division of Aeronautics is en route from the Sun Valley area.
Helicopters allow searchers to survey the area at a lower altitude and at slower speeds than fixed-wing aircraft. The aircraft will continue to systematically grid the area for any signs of the missing plane.
“We are extremely thankful for the support we have been getting from multiple organizations,” said Incident Commander Lt. Dan Smith with the Valley County Sheriff’s Office.
“This search has been a cooperative effort from the beginning and continues to be so.”
The airplane and its passengers have been missing since Dec. 1. It lost radar and cell tower contact about a mile east of the remote and rugged Johnson Creek Airstrip near Yellow Pine (50 miles northeast of Cascade).