Media Manager

BOISE - The pilot of a private airplane missing since Sunday was rescued from the wreckage of his plane and transported late this afternoon by helicopter to St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in Lewiston, according to the Idaho County Sheriff's Office in Orofino.

No report on the condition of pilot Paul C. Herr of Pasco, Wash., was immediately available from the hospital.

The aircraft was sighted today at about 12:30 p.m. in a timber-covered canyon about 45 miles east of Kooskia, the Idaho Transportation Departments Division of Aeronautics announced.

Rescue crews from the Idaho County Sheriff's Office and Clearwater National Forest reached the crash site at mid-afternoon and helped prepare the site for a helicopter from Orofino to land. The helicopter, which apparently had been involved in the search, also provides medical transport services and flew Herr to the Lewiston hospital. He arrived shortly after 4 p.m.

Herr reported that his Piper 180 aircraft was experiencing engine trouble and then failure at approximately 4 p.m. Monday. He was instructed to attempt a landing at an airstrip near Kooskia. The aircraft then disappeared from radar about 15 miles north-northeast of Grangeville.

Inclement weather and a low cloud ceiling Tuesday hampered attempts to launch an aerial search for the missing plane. The wreckage was sighted by a Civil Air Patrol team and a helicopter pilot.

Rescue operations were organized by the Idaho County Sheriff's Office in Orofino, along with assistance from the Idaho County Sheriffs Posse, the U.S. Forest Service, the Civil Air Patrol and the Idaho Division of Aeronautics.