Two people aboard a 1963 Mooney M20C aircraft are presumed dead after the plane’s wreckage was found by a search team at 9:19 a.m. on May 12 near Yellowstone, Wyoming, USA.
The aircraft carrying 86 year old Ward H. Zimmerman and his younger brother 84 year old Robert Zimmerman from Alabama, took off from Yellowstone Regional Airport on May 6. They were en route to Twin Falls in Idaho.
The Park County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue Team was sent to find the plane after it was reported missing on May 10. A search helicopter spotted the plane in a severely damaged condition, settled on the eastern slope of Howell Mountain in Wyoming.
Park County Sheriff Scott Steward, after reviewing the aerial photographs and discussing the situation with Search and Rescue team officials concluded that the Zimmerman brothers lost their lives in the crash. He said, “Given the damage to the aircraft as well as the extremely harsh environmental conditions in the area, I think there’s no other conclusion we can make.”