Search continues for missing plane

By presstime on Wednes-day morning, the focus of the search for a plane missing since Sunday had turned to the Flathead River from Dixon to its confluence with the Clark Fork River.

On board were Erika Hoefer and Melissa Weaver, reporters hired by the Daily Inter Lake last December, Missoula pilot Sonny Kless, who grew up in Bigfork, and Brian Williams, a second-year law student at the University of Montana.

Kless rented the blue-and-white 1968 Piper Arrow single-engine plane in Missoula, flew north with Williams and departed Kalispell City Airport with the two women about 1:30 p.m. Sunday.

Radar data shows the plane flew north along the Whitefish Range, entered Glacier Park airspace, then headed south along the Swan Range and across Flathead Lake to the Bison Range.

Kless last made radio contact with GPI Airport at 2:11 p.m. Hoefer last updated her Facebook page on 1:40 p.m., saying she was flying over Glacier Park. Weaver and Hoefer text-messaged each other at 3:47 p.m., and the plane went off the radar screen at 4:02 p.m.

Radar indicated the plane flew over the Bison Range about 300 feet above the ground, and witnesses near the search area reported seeing a small plane flying 20 to 30 feet above the Flathead River.

Planes, helicopters, ATVs, horses and boats with sonar are being used in the search.