Arduous quest establishes memorial for crash victims

A quest to erect a memorial for two Daily Inter Lake reporters who died in an airplane crash near Perma in June 2010 has been accomplished, with a sense of relief and reward for those involved.

A group of six people set out from a remote logging road in rugged, mountainous terrain on the morning of Sept. 24, bushwhacking about six miles through thick timber to the crash site about 8 miles southwest of Perma.

After reaching the site, the group used a satellite phone to call in a helicopter from Missoula carrying a 45-pound stainless steel cross bearing the names and birth dates of reporters Erika J. Hoefer and Melissa Weaver and “Eternal Friends 6-27-2010,” the date of the crash.

“It was great to see that helicopter coming in from up above with that cross in a basket underneath,” said Bill Hoefer, Erika’s father. “It was such a relief because I know we couldn’t have gotten it in.”

Putting the cross in place was the culmination of a determined effort that was easier said than done, to say the least.

“It’s been my focus for a year, along with a few other people who helped us out, that’s for sure,” Hoefer said. “The good thing is we got it done. I was just so happy.”

A single-engine Piper airplane took off from Kalispell City Airport the morning of June 27, 2010, for a scenic flight, carrying Hoefer, 27, Weaver, 23, and two men from Missoula, Brian Williams, 28, and the pilot, 25-year-old Sonny Kless.

When they did not return as planned that afternoon, a massive search was launched.

The wreckage was located three days later, with all four on board deceased.

Soon after a funeral for Hoefer in her hometown of Beloit, Wis., Dillon Tabish, then an Inter Lake reporter, suggested some type of memorial for his two friends, and the idea took hold with Bill Hoefer.

“Dillon mentioned that we might be able to hike back there and leave something there,” Hoefer recalls.

Hoefer returned to Montana last October to scout out the possibilities, at one point meeting with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Council and tribal officials for permission.

“I was able to talk to the council while they were in session and they were just absolutely wonderful,” Hoefer said. 

In addition to approving his request, tribal officials advised him to provide a photograph of the memorial and coordinates for its location within lands that are considered part of the tribes’ timber base.

“They told me they would flag that area because it is a logging area. They would literally designate that as a memorial site because it is sacred ground and they would never log it,” he said.

Todd Donahue, a Missoula helicopter pilot who was involved in extracting the wreckage, volunteered his services in flying Hoefer and Tabish over the crash site to scout out the potential for reaching it on foot.

Hoefer then enlisted the services of a metal worker in Wisconsin to build the cross, first consulting with Weaver’s parents, Billings residents Dan and Cathy Weaver.

“I contacted her parents and asked what they thought, and they liked the idea as much as we did, so we just talked back and forth,” Hoefer said.

Plans were set to carry out the task in June this year, and around the anniversary of the crash roughly a dozen family members and friends converged on Missoula, some from as far away as Boston.

But there was a big problem: Montana’s late spring weather and lingering snowpack of up to 3 feet had buried much of the rough logging road that would be used to reach the area, where creeks were flowing high. The conditions were such that the expedition was called off.

“That would have been a disaster,” Hoefer said. “I don’t think we could have done it.”

“We were really disappointed,” Tabish said. “This is something the whole year we had been focused on.”

But Hoefer was determined. He and his wife, Candy, and daughter, Jessica, made the roughly 1,700-mile drive back to Montana in September to try again.

For the hike, Hoefer and his daughter were joined by a friend of his from Missoula, Erik Luther, along with Tabish and, most importantly, two members of the Sanders County Search and Rescue team who had escorted National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration officials to the crash site last year.

Brian Krick and Erich Pfalzer, both U.S. Forest Service employees from Trout Creek, volunteered their entire day toward the effort, providing some much-needed confidence for bushwhacking through some rough country. A tribal saw crew was needed during initial efforts to reach the crash site.

“You can’t get an idea of what it’s going to be like until you’re right there looking at the terrain,” Tabish said.

“For the first two miles maybe, it was OK, but after that you dive downhill and you’re going through brush and trees and rock slides,” he said.

The group was aided by a GPS navigation device, but a meandering course still was necessary to travel through the terrain. When the group approached the site, the work of the saw crew that worked in the area became apparent and the exact location of the fiery crash was unmistakable.

“It was still kind of a charred piece of land. There is melted metal and glass. There are no big pieces left,” Tabish said.

After erecting the four-foot high cross, the group reflected on Hoefer and Weaver.

“Sometimes it feels like it happened 10 years ago and sometimes you’ll hear or see something that makes it seem like it happened just yesterday,” Tabish said, adding that the cross will be a permanent presence.

“It’s heavy duty. We hammered that thing down good. That thing is going to stay there forever,” he said.

The mostly uphill hike back took longer, with the group returning to their vehicles from the 12-mile round trip at about 8 p.m. The next day the Hoefers met with the Weavers and mutual friends at a Missoula hotel to share memories.

“They’ve been able to come together as families, and I guess that’s the only good thing you could ask for in a tragedy like this,” Tabish said.

And for Bill Hoefer, the quest is complete.

“The likelihood of anybody ever finding it is probably slim,” he said of the memorial cross. “But we know where it’s at.”

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by email at jmann@dailyinterlake.com.