Waiting is the hardest part for friends, families

While search aircraft buzzed overhead and search boats cruised the lower Flathead River, it was an agonizing wait Tuesday for friends and family members of four missing people.

Two Kalispell women and two Missoula men were on a small plane that disappeared while on a scenic flight Sunday.

Relatives and friends gathered at the visitor center at the National Bison Range, waiting, hoping and praying.

They mingled in and around the visitor center — the command post for search operations — hugging each other and crying.

At around 2 p.m., some began growing frustrated with staying at the visitor center. “Standing here doing nothing is what? Nothing,” said one relative of Sonny Kless, the pilot of the plane.

So family and friends gathered and organized to search along the river in groups of their own.

Lake County Sheriff Lucky Larson encouraged them to do so.

“I’ve called in Sonny’s army,” said Wendy Martin, who is Kless’ girlfriend. She said she contacted several of his friends who planned to come up and join the search.

Daily Inter Lake staffers Melissa Weaver and Erika Hoefer were passengers on the plane. Brian Williams, a University of Montana Law School student, was the fourth person on the flight.

The wait was tough, too, for Hoefer’s parents, but they are waiting almost 1,300 miles away in Beloit, Wis.

Candy Hoefer, Erika’s mother, explained that the family didn’t want to risk missing a critical phone call while making the long two-flight airline connections to reach Montana.

Hoefer's aunt arrived Tuesday night at the search command post; Hoefer's parents are scheduled to fly in to Montana today.