Update: This story has been updated to include the girl’s name, released late Tuesday morning by the Sheridan County Coroner.
A 13-year-old girl was found dead and three people were injured and airlifted to care Monday after a plane crash in the Bighorn National Forest, the Sheridan County Sheriff’s Office reports.
The Sheridan Law Enforcement Center received initial reports just before 5 p.m. Monday that people were injured in the Big Mountain area of the Bighorn National Forest, says a statement the Sheridan County Sheriff’s Office release about the crash early Tuesday.
More reports reached the office that a plane had crashed in the area.
Sheriff’s deputies, Sheridan Area Search and Rescue and Wyoming Regional EMS responded.
First Flight from Greybull was called to fly over the area, and the flight personnel confirmed “evidence of a plane crash in the area west of Big Mountain,” the statement says.
Authorities established an incident command post at the Steamboat Point parking lot.
Flight, medical and search personnel approached the crash site on the north end of the Walker Prairie Trail, according to the sheriff’s office.
Rescue and medical teams arrived at the crash site and found a single-engine aircraft with three “patients” and a deceased 13-year-old girl on scene, the statement says.
An 11-year-old male, 54-year-old male and 53-year-old female, “all of the same family, were reported to have serious injuries,” adds the statement.
Airlifted
Medical and rescue teams worked to stabilize the three patients.
Authorities called the Wyoming Air National Guard to bring an additional helicopter for hoist operations.
The first patient was airlifted by First Flight from the scene to the Incident Command Post and transported to Sheridan Memorial Hospital by emergency medical personnel.
The Wyoming Air National Guard was able to airlift the other two patients from the scene with two separate flights.
Of those, the first flight involved airlifting one of the patients to the Sheridan County Airport where the patient was then transferred to an awaiting St. Vincent Help Flight Helicopter and flown to a Billings, Montana Hospital. The second flight involved the Wyoming Air National Guard airlifting the third patient directly to a Billings, Montana, Hospital.
The First Flight crew flew several times to transport search and rescue and medical personnel back out, along with the deceased girl, to the Incident Command Post, says the statement.
The girl’s body was transferred to the Sheridan County Coroner.
The statement says the county coroner will release the girl’s name “at a later time.”
As of early Tuesday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was en route and Sheridan Area Search and Rescue, Sheridan County Sheriff’s Deputies, and Bighorn National Forest Service personnel planned to remain on scene until the FAA investigation is completed, the statement says.
“The Sheridan County Sheriff’s Office asks the public to stay out of the area,” it adds.
“The coordinated effort between all of the rescuers, EMS, medical teams, and aircraft personnel was exceptional,” Sheridan County Sheriff Levi Dominguez said. “This was, and still is, a very fluid scene. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims’ and their family.”
Sheridan County Coroner Robert Byrd on Tuesday morning identified the decedent as Amelia Palmer, age 13.
Eight Minute Flight
The flight tracker log for that plane — shows it leaving the Sheridan County Airport at 4:02 p.m., Monday, according to flightaware.com.
It accelerated and rose northwest briefly, then headed on a westward course through Sheridan County, reaching a speed of 101 mph and altitude of 6,300 feet by 4:09. The plane changed course slightly southward at 4:10 p.m., after which its flight ended, according to the data.
The plane is a 1965 single-engine Piper Cherokee registered to a Sheridan man.
Its recent flight log shows multiple trips between Sheridan County Airport and Gowen Field, Boise, Idaho, in the past week, as well as a trip to the Nampa, Idaho, airport on Saturday.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
