Missing Plane With BYU-Idaho Students Found
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(CASCADE, ID) – A plane that went down in December in the central Idaho wilderness has been found. The bodies of five people, including two BYU-Idaho students, were located last week on a ridgetop about a half mile east of the Yellow Pine airstrip. The plane was found by someone viewing aerial photos on a web page set up for volunteer searchers. The plane was in pieces and buried in snow, but officials believe everyone on board died upon impact.
The five people on-board the plane included pilot, Dale Smith, his son Daniel and Daniel’s wife, Sheree, were on board along with two BYU-Idaho students, the pilot’s daughter Amber Smith and her fiance Jonathan Norton.
Friday night, Dale Smith’s wife Janis posted the following message to the search website:
They found the plane! Thank you to all the Tomnod searchers who found images that were right on. Dellon and his crew spent the entire day, from 3am onward trying to find the right location. The snow was very deep and the going was very slow. Less than two hours before they needed to wrap up the search for the foreseeable future, Dellon and Arthur found the plane. I am so grateful that Dellon was the one who found his brother. The plane is in pieces and buried in snow. They have not yet found all the parts. However, we do know my family members on the plane died quickly and painlessly. They did not suffer.