5/10/2005
Transportation department coordinating search for overdue private airplane
BOISE - A search for an overdue private airplane will begin this morning near Kooskia about 70 miles east of Lewiston, the Idaho Transportation Department announced.
A single-engine Piper 180 aircraft with one occupant left Jackson, Wyo., for Lewiston Monday afternoon. At about 4 p.m., the pilot reported engine trouble and then engine failure to air traffic controllers in Seattle. The pilot was directed to fly toward an airstrip in Kooskia 20 miles away. A few minutes later, both radio and radar contact with the pilot was lost.
The Idaho Transportation Departments Division of Aeronautics is coordinating aerial search efforts in cooperation with the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center in Langley, Va., and the Idaho Civil Air Patrol.
Low clouds in the area have kept search aircraft grounded as of 9 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time.
The pilots name has not been released.