What happened to the pilot from Salmon who went missing in 1976? Here’s his story.

SALMON — A local pilot and his aircraft went missing in 1976 after taking off from Salmon on what was supposed to be “a light plane flight.”

The story on the missing pilot was featured in our weekly Looking Back column, which looks back on what life was like during specific time periods in east Idaho history.

Pilot, airplane go missing

Lewis C. Meeks, manager of two ranches in the Idaho Primitive Area, was reported missing on Aug. 26, 1976. The 38-year-old man was last heard from before he took off Wednesday evening (Aug. 25, 1976) in a Cessna 260 to Root Ranch.

“He had returned from one (ranch) — the Flying B — and was flying back to the other — Root Ranch — between 75 and 100 miles northwest of Salmon when he went down,” the Idaho State Journal explained.

Carol Jarvis, the radio coordinator for the search, said Meeks had enough food aboard his single-engine plane to survive for two weeks if he was alive and not seriously injured.

But, on Aug. 30, 1976, two loggers who stumbled upon the scene found Meeks and his plane.

Pilot found in wreckage

Richard Malcolm and his coworker Bob Horn discovered the crashed airplane on Napoleon Ridge, 15 miles north of Salmon. They had been working in the area for a week and had left just minutes before Meeks took off, about 8 p.m. Wednesday.

Malcom said they were working their way down the hill, cutting trees and building road as they went, and saw “something shiny” Monday about 400 yards from the road.

“The tail was all broken off, and the wings were lying on the ground,” Malcom said in an Associated Press article shared by the Idaho State Journal. “We had quite a time getting him out.”

Up to 15 planes hunted over the vast area of Central Idaho, including Chamberlain Basin, before “the crashed craft finally was found by chance,” just south of North Fork.

Malcom said it appeared Meeks died on impact and that his propeller “sheared off” a tree as he went down.

Jarvis added that it looked like Meeks tried to return to Salmon when a rain and wind storm arose after he took off. He said the plane was found on the Salmon side of the ridge and that the plane was “all in one pile … just like you’d squash a tin can.” The plane did not burn.

“It looks like he got a violent downdraft,” Jarvis said, adding that the plane crashed down onto tall trees near the top of the ridge rather than flying laterally into the height.

Federal Aviation Administration officials were probing the crash.

According to Meeks’ obituary, he left behind his wife Lana Fackler DeBord who he married in May 1973. They lived in Mountain View, California, until March 1976, when they moved to Salmon. Meeks was buried in the Salmon Cemetery.