An Anchorage pilot whose brother was flying a single-engine aircraft that disappeared east of McCall on Dec. 1 is part of a team making a final winter push to locate the plane.
"This is it," said Dellon Smith. "Our next available chance is in the spring."
Backed by an army of volunteers scouring Internet images and armed with new information that helped narrow the search area, the group left Wednesday on a four-day search. The plan was to take a snowcat up an old Jeep trail to a ridge east of Johnson Creek Airport.
Smith is desperate to find his brother, Dale Smith, a San Jose software executive; his niece, Amber; his nephew, Daniel, and Daniel's wife, Sheree; and Amber's fiance, Jonathan Norton.
After a family Thanksgiving in Baker City, Ore., Dale Smith was flying Daniel and Sheree to their home in Butte, Mont. Amber and Norton, seniors at BYU-Idaho, went along for the ride.
Katy Moeller
Idaho Statesman