The bodies of two eastern Idaho residents were found Wednesday in the wreckage of an airplane that crashed in southern Twin Falls County.
Danny Summers, 55, of Sugar City, and Jodi Wyatt, 47, of Rexburg, were found dead Wednesday afternoon by Twin Falls County Search and Rescue members. Their bodies have not yet been positively identified, but they were believed to be the aircraft’s occupants.
Summers’ Douglas Aircraft A-1 Skyraider took off from Wendover, Utah, at approximately 4 p.m. Tuesday. It was reported missing about two hours later, when it failed to arrive in Idaho Falls.
It’s unclear when the aircraft went down or how it ended up more than 180 miles off course.
Civil Air Patrol pilots located the aircraft in the Shoshone Basin about one mile north of the Idaho/Nevada border shortly before noon Wednesday, and Twin Falls County sheriff’s deputies reached the remote crash site by ground in the afternoon.
The search centered on a 50-square-mile area approximately 18 miles east of Jackpot, Nev. Cassia County searchers also participated.
Brad DeBow, manager of the Legacy Flight Museum in Rexburg, knew Summers for several years. He said the farmer flew to Utah “periodically” for vacation.
DeBow said Summers was a skilled vintage aircraft pilot.
“He’s got a lot of experience with it,” DeBow said. “He’d been flying them for years and years.”
The Skyraider Summers was flying at the time of the crash was a National Guard plane used in radar operations during the Cold War, DeBow said.
The cause of the crash remains unknown, and will be the subject of a Federal Aviation Administration investigation.
