Search for missing airplane focuses on bison range

MOIESE, Mont. (AP) - Searchers of a missing plane with two reporters on board are focusing on a bison range in northwestern Montana.

The rented 1968 Piper single-engine airplane was carrying a total of four people when it went missing during a sightseeing tour Sunday afternoon.

On board was Sonny Kless of Missoula, who rented the plane, and his passengers: Daily Inter Lake reporters Melissa Weaver and Erika Hoefer, along with another Missoula man.

The roommate of one of the reporters contacted the Flathead County Sheriff's Office and other agencies on Monday morning when the reporter had not returned or left a message.

The last known location of the plane was about 80 miles south of Kalispell near the National Bison Range. Authorities searched through the night amid the rolling green hills of the 18,500-acre range.