Update and Timeline on Missing Plane

Photo of Autumn Taken Inside  Plane

Bellingham, WA: Officials have released the following information on the missing plane that was scheduled to arrive in Lynden on Saturday Night and never showed up: 

UPDATE 12:15 p.m. July 13: Weather over the Cascades has cleared, allowing four search planes to launch from Bellingham in the search for a plane that never landed as expected. The planes will launch momentarily and search in Skagit, Whatcom, Chelan, and Okanogan counties.

A fifth plane, which will launch from Spokane, also will join the planes in the search.
Search crews resumed looking for a missing plane Monday morning, under the direction of our agency and the Civil Air Patrol.

Crews are using the last found cell signal – at about 4 p.m. Saturday near Omak to help focus the search in Skagit, Whatcom, Chelan, and Okanogan counties in northern Washington.

A plane launched at 8 a.m. out of Spokane to check weather conditions to ensure it was safe for others to fly. Rain has delayed those subsequent flights but they will launch as soon as given the all-clear.

Aerial crews will search for emergency locator beacon signals as well conducting visual searches of the ground looking for any sign of the plane. Five planes will be used for this search. The rugged terrain is in the Cascade mountains. Ground search crews will be sent in if a targeted location is determined.

The first crews this morning are determining weather conditions over the search area to ensure it is safe to launch more planes in the area.

All three occupants are family members: plane owner/pilot Leland Bowman, (62) and his wife Sharon (63), of Marion, Montana, and their step-granddaughter Autumn Veatch (16) of Bellingham, Washington.

Below is an updated timeline of events from Saturday. All times are in Pacific Daylight Time).

• 1:01 p.m. – Plane departs Kalispell, Montana Saturday, July 11, headed for Lynden, Washington.
• 2:21 p.m. – Plane crosses ID/WA state line, near Newport, WA
• 3:21 p.m. – Plane drops off radar near Omak, WA
• 3:49 p.m. – Last signal from a plane occupant’s cellphone, roughly near Omak, WA
• 4:05 p.m. – Time plane was expected to arrive in Lynden, Washington (based on visual flight plan filed before take-off). Plane did not arrive.

The Federal Aviation Administration and family contacted authorities late Saturday night when the plane did not arrive on schedule. The first search plane launched at 6 a.m. Sunday.

We are responsible by state statute for coordination and management of aerial search and rescue within the state. The Aviation Emergency Services Program is operated by our Office of Emergency Management.  We are working closely with the Civil Air Patrol, U.S. Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and other entities on the search.

UPDATE 1:50 p.m. July 13: Civil Air Patrol (CAP) officials, the WSDOT partners in the search for the missing plane, have released details about how they use cell phone data to help search for planes. Using this information, crews narrowed the search area for the plane to around Mazama (near Omak), the Lost Lake Airport and the Rainy Pass area. CAP notes this is some of the toughest mountainous terrain in the state.

The Press Memo from Civil Air Patrol on how the use cell phone data to help search for the planes is below: 

We will provide updates from officials throughout the day.