Was the plane that vanished in 1947 in the Grace-Preston area ever found? Here’s what we know
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PRESTON — A search was underway in 1947 in the Grace-Preston area for a plane that disappeared with two people on board.
The story on the missing aircraft was featured in our weekly Looking Back column, which looks back on what life was like during different periods in east Idaho history.
Plane vanishes
The plane disappeared on Nov. 15, 1947. The aircraft was carrying Bruno Koski, a 23-year-old Civil Aeronautics employee, and Harold Leroy Smith, a 21-year-old construction company worker.
The Idaho Falls Post Register reported Smith was from Butte, Montana. It was originally reported Koski was from Butte too, but he was actually a Washington resident.
The men had disappeared after leaving on a flight from Montpelier, Idaho, to Salt Lake City. The plane was last seen in the Grace-Preston area over the north end of the Wasatch mountain range, where the snow-covered peaks extend as high as 9,000 feet.
On Nov. 20, 1947, 20 planes conducted an unsuccessful “dawn to dark” search over a 50-square-mile mountainous area for signs of the missing aircraft.
Chet Moulton, Idaho aeronautics director, and A.G. Witter, CAA inspector, both of Boise, were directing volunteer pilots who were searching for the men. The private pilots came from Montpelier, Soda Springs, Grace, Pocatello and Preston, as well as Tremonton and Logan, Utah.
Reward offered
The Utah Aeronautics Commission had offered a $1,000 reward in an effort to help find the men, but the offer expired Dec. 19, 1947. At that time, there still had been no trace of Koski or Smith.
Wreckage found
It wasn’t until June 1948 that the wrecked plane and the bodies of the men were found. They were located near Garden City on the shores of Bear Lake by John C. Weirand and Charles Brandson, two Brigham City, Utah, airmen.
The Twin Falls Times News said the bodies inside the plane were “tentatively identified from personal papers” as Koski and Smith.
“Officials who reached the Garden City crash site said it was indicated that the Koski plane had pancaked onto the mountainside and that one of the airmen — probably Smith — had survived the crash, only to succumb to exposure or injuries,” The Twin Falls Times News wrote.
It’s not clear why the plane crashed.
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