Weather slows search for plane crash victims

COEUR d’ALENE — Poor weather hampered Wednesday’s search for the two remaining bodies in Lake Coeur d’Alene following Sunday afternoon’s mid-air collision that claimed eight lives.

“We have a couple of targets we’re looking at today,” Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Ryan Higgins said. “One is another section of the crash site. We’re going to try and track another couple points of interest for potential wings and things like that, in addition to trying to find the victims.”

Higgins said finding the remaining two victims remains KCSO’s top priority. Six of the eight plane crash victims have been found.

Higgins said officials are still investigating why a charter plane carrying five passengers and a pilot from Brooks Seaplane Service collided with a Cessna aircraft carrying a pilot and one passenger around 2:20 p.m. Sunday.

Divers and the sonar team are searching a 400-yard radius near Powderhorn Bay and Black Bay.

Higgins said the team has faced multiple challenges with poor weather causing the sonar team to struggle to keep boats anchored while surveying the wreckage.

Once the boat is anchored, the team releases a remotely operated vehicle to the lake floor which locates objects underwater in search and recovery missions. Unfortunately, the side thruster that propels the team’s remotely operated vehicle straight was lost, slowing the investigation process.

Higgins said a private contractor in Coeur d’Alene had been hired by the insurance company to recover the remaining pieces of the two aircraft and is ready to deploy as soon as the KCSO is finished with its investigation.

He said they will work closely with federal investigators. He said if the remaining victims aren’t found by the sonar team outside the crash wreckage, they think they may be in the crash wreckage.

Whether the sonar team will be back on Lake Coeur d’Alene today will depend on Wednesday’s findings, Higgins said.

It’s emotional for the divers, he said.

“They want to bring closure to the family just as much as everybody else does and so they’re working very, very hard to do that,” Higgins said. “They’re a great group of deputies and they’ll be out there as long as necessary to do what they can do to help bring closure.”