Pilot Did Not Survive Crash Near Canyon Ferry Lake

ANN REALTIME REPORTING 03.19.09 1720 EDT: Search crews in Montana have located the wreckage of a Cessna 180F believed to have been piloted by noted mountain flying instructor Sparky Imeson (right). The pilot did not survive the accident.

The Great Falls Tribune reports crews found the wreckage at 9:45 am Thursday morning, about 2.5 miles southeast of a small private-use airstrip located at Canyon Ferry Lake, near Townsend.

"It's difficult to find the right words to convey the sense of loss the Montana aeronautics community will experience," said Debbie Alke of the Montana Transportation Department Aeronautics Division. "Sparky Imeson was a colleague and a friend to so many. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and our gratitude to all who have helped us find him."

Imeson had been missing since Tuesday afternoon, when his plane disappeared from radar while flying from Bozeman to Helena. A rancher in the Kimber Gulch area of the Elkhorn Mountains told crews he had seen a white plane in the area of the crash between 2:30 pm and 3 pm Tuesday, which helped crews narrow their search effort.

Imeson was an accomplished flight instructor, and author of the "Mountain Flying Bible and Flight Operations Handbook."

He was injured in another mountain flying accident in 2007, when he and pilot Jon C. Kantorowicz were caught in a downdraft while flying over the Elkhorn range, that pushed their Aviat Husky into mountainous terrain. Both men received relatively minor injuries in that accident.

FMI: www.mdt.mt.gov, www.montanapilots.org