Father, Two Daughters Killed in Montana Wilderness Plane Crash

Three members of an Alabama family have been identified as the victims of a fatal plane crash in the Bob Marshall Wilderness of Montana on Friday, October 17.

According to the Powell County Sheriff’s Office, officials received a report of a possible downed aircraft late in the afternoon. With assistance from Malmstrom Air Force Base and volunteers from the Montana Department of Transportation Aeronautics Division, search crews were able to track a weak emergency locator beacon and locate the wreckage in the woods near Youngs Creek, northeast of Seeley Lake.

Authorities said the search was made even more challenging by approaching storms and winter-like conditions in the mountainous terrain.

Friends from a church and aviation community in Huntsville, Alabama, identified the victims as pilot Mark Anderson and his daughters, Lainey and Ellie Anderson. The family had been vacationing in Montana and were reportedly flying over the mountains en route to Polson when the plane went down.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the crash, which is one of several recent fatal aviation accidents in Northwest Montana.