Icing Over the Bob Marshall Wilderness: The Loss of N2345R

A flight instructor from Alabama and his two daughters were killed when their twin-engine Aztec went down in one of the most remote stretches of wilderness in the Lower 48, after the pilot reported icing and engine trouble on a family trip that was supposed to end in Polson, Montana.

A Family Trip

Mark Anderson, 62 — a flight instructor from Jasper, Alabama — was flying his Piper Aztec with his daughters Lainey, 22, and Ellie, 17, aboard. They were headed to Polson, Montana, on October 17, 2025, when the flight took them over the Bob Marshall Wilderness, a vast, roadless expanse of northern Powell County with few options for an emergency landing and worse options for a fast rescue if something went wrong.

Ice and Engine Trouble

According to a preliminary report on the accident, the pilot reported the airplane was icing up and experiencing engine trouble shortly before it went down. Icing on a piston twin degrades lift and can starve an engine of air or foul a propeller, and it's a known hazard precisely in mountain terrain like this, where terrain forces airplanes to altitudes cold enough to pick it up and offers few ways down and out of it quickly.

Lost Over the Wilderness

Radar contact with the Aztec was lost at around 4:30 p.m. The Powell County Sheriff's Office began search operations almost immediately, but the Bob Marshall Wilderness is exactly the kind of terrain search-and-rescue teams dread: no road access, dense forest, and — that day — weather that delayed air search efforts through the night. It wasn't until roughly 9 a.m. the next morning that a volunteer search aircraft spotted the wreckage.

No Survivors

All three people aboard — Mark Anderson and his two daughters — were found dead at the crash site. The family's dog was also aboard and did not survive.

Investigation Status

This accident remains under investigation; as of this writing, only a preliminary NTSB report exists, and no probable cause has been determined. The preliminary account confirms the pilot's own report of icing and engine trouble immediately before the loss of contact, but a final determination of cause — whether the ice itself, an ice-related engine or control problem, or something else was the deciding factor — has not yet been published.

This reconstruction was researched from official investigation records where they exist, the original air traffic control recording, and contemporary reporting. The aircraft movement, timeline and written account were assembled independently by Flight Follower. Where an investigation is open or no probable cause has been published, the account says so rather than offering one.

Timeline

Accident Facts

Sources

• Bozeman Daily Chronicle, "Report: Pilot in deadly Bob Marshall Wilderness plane crash reported ice before accident"
• Newsweek, "Montana plane crash kills three: What we know"
• Daily Inter Lake, "Alabama pilot and two daughters die after plane goes down in Bob Marshall Wilderness"
• ABC 3340 (Birmingham), "Flight instructor from Jasper among three killed in Montana crash during family trip"