Four Bodies Recovered From Montana Airplane Crash

Authorities found the crashed wreck of a small airplane after it did not make its return to Billings, Montana this past weekend.

Investigators were initially working on determining the number of passengers aboard the 1978 Cessna 182 when it crashed.

The FAA said the plane had four occupants, and they have all been accounted for considering the bodies found at the base of the mountain.

The Cessna 182 is a single-engine airplane that usually has four seats.

Captain Ken, O’Donnell from the Yellowstone County Sheriff it was a private recreational flight.

The authorities recovered four bodies. Both the NTSB and FAA are also investigating the crash estimated to have occurred north of Billings. The circumstances surround the crash are not known as yet.

FAA spokesperson, Allen Kenitzer claimed, the initial notice for the search of the missing plane was issued just before 3 am local time on Sunday. He also said the wreckage was found at around 10 am.

The authorities then started the search by air and ground at Sunrise when the plane failed to return to Billings.

A radar track found that the last known location was near Dunn Mountain, and the County Sheriff, Mike Linder, was flown to the site on Sunday.

Linder stated they were able to land and determine there were no survivors.

A preliminary inspection of the crash site was done, leading to the hypothesis it clipped a wire of a radio tower on top of the mountain.

The police said the bodies yet to be identified have been transported to the state morgue in Billings, where the autopsies are going to be done on Monday.

The notifications will later be done to the next of kin.

O’Donnell cautioned the crash site is in a rugged area meaning the accessibility is going to be a factor within the investigation. The cell phone service within the area is also going to be poor allegedly.

The National Transportation Safety Bureau claimed it is currently investigating the cause of the crash. However, the Yellowstone county sheriff said they would bring more federal investigators to the crash site on Monday.

A Montana highway patrol drone was tasked to document a part of the crash site. Coroner, Cliff Mahoney, deputy coroner Rich Hoffman, and Dr. Robert Kurtzman, the medical coroner, were part of the team who responded to the crash to identify the bodies and their respective causes of death.