Missing plane last seen near Mount Borah
05:14 PM MDT on Thursday, May 27, 2004
HELENA, MT -- Authorities in Montana say the search for a missing crop-duster plane has shifted to Idaho.
A state aviation official says a man in Idaho saw news reports about the missing plane, and told authorities today he had seen it last Saturday.
He said the plane was flying west near Mount Borah, about 90 miles east of the Idaho-Montana border, and appeared to be flying up a narrow coulee.
Based on the report, Montana officials suspended their search this afternoon.
And Idaho searchers began concentrating on the area of the reported sighting.
The missing pilot is 39-year-old John Brandner of Spearfish, South Dakota.
He left Fort Benton, Montana, Saturday morning; and stopped for fuel in Dillon en route to Boise, Idaho.
Brandner has a commercial pilot's rating, and was flying to Nevada to work as a contractor, fighting fires with the Forest Service.
placemark, back later.
yep same story