Copyright 2004 Great Falls Tribune (Great Falls, MT)

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August 20, 2004 Friday

Investigator hunts for cause of plane crash; one dies in separate plane wreck

By KAREN OGDEN Tribune Regional Editor

STANFORD - A federal aviation investigator arrived in the Little Belt Mountains east of Neihart Thursday to search for the cause of a plane crash that killed two Kalispell-area men.

Pilot Larry Baier and his friend Scott Kiral were killed when the U.S. Postal Service contract plane Baier was flying crashed below the summit of Big Baldy Mountain near Rhoda Lake. Baier flew for Alpine Air Express based in Provo, Utah.

The plane hit a slope above the lake, which sits in a deep bowl, Judith Basin County Sheriff Robert Jacobi said.

"The plane impacted the side of the mountain and parts were scattered over a 200- to 300-yard area," Jacobi said.

On Wednesday, the Judith Basin Search and Rescue team recovered the bodies, which were sent to St. Vincent Hospital in Billings for autopsies.

Contrary to early reports, the volunteer rescue team was the first to spot the accident scene.

Search and Rescue volunteers, who drove over the mountain from Neihart on four-wheelers, first located the wreck when they spotted yellow mailbags on the treeless, rocky hillside.

Mail in the bags and scattered around the crash site appeared to be salvageable, Jacobi said.

U.S. Postal Service workers went to the area Thursday and were planning to start retrieving the mail as soon as a National Surface Transportation Board investigator at the scene gave them the OK.

Charring on rocks indicated there was some fire involved, Jacobi said.

Rescue volunteers faced a tough job at the rugged site.

"Judith Basin Search and Rescue deserves a huge pat on the back," Jacobi said. "It was dangerous. It was steep. Everybody pitched in and did what they had to do."

This week's crash marked the third plane to go down over the Little Belt Mountains in recent years.

In January 2002, a single-engine Cessna 210 crashed in timer near the top of Peterson Mountain in stormy weather. Great Falls pilot Jim Wickens walked away from the wreck.

In May 2000, a twin-engine Cessna 414 crashed into Barker Mountain in similar weather conditions, killing all three people aboard.

However, each accident occurred under unique circumstances, said Dwight Holman, president of Holman Aviation Co. in Great Falls.

The Little Belt Mountains are in a regular flight path between Billings and Great Falls.

"One of the contributing factors is just the law of statistics," he said. "It stands to reason that where there's more traffic there's more of a probability of an accident."

GRAPHIC: A crashed plane remains in a field Thursday near Miles City on Thursday. Garfield County Sheriff Kelly Pierson said Jerry Lund, 48, died in the Wednesday evening crash. No one else was on board. AP PHOTO