BOZEMAN (AP) -- The bodies of three men killed in a weekend plane crash were retrieved from a mountainside in the Bridger Range Sunday afternoon, with helicopters ferrying the needed equipment and personnel to the snowy, 30-degree slope.
Gallatin County Coroner Duncan MacNab identified the victims as Brandon Speth, 30, the pilot; Jim Bastiani, in his mid-60s and a retired Delta Air Lines pilot; and Clifford Lincoln, 62, all of the Bozeman-Belgrade area.
One person survived Saturday's crash about a mile southwest of the top of 9,700-foot high Mount Sacagawea. The mountain is about a dozen miles northeast of Bozeman.
He was identified as Don Olson, 23, who was in critical but stable condition at Bozeman Deaconess Sunday night, the coroner said.
There was a fire at the crash site, but MacNab said the three men died from the force of impact.
The National Transportation Safety Board was investigating the cause of the crash.
Officials said Olson's tracks in the snow showed that someone survived and rescuers found him walking down the mountain about 4:30 p.m. Saturday. He was flown by helicopter to the hospital.
Mike Fergus of the Federal Aviation Administration said the plane was a Cirrus SR-22 registered to Flightline Fractionals Inc. of Belgrade and the four were on a ``recreational flight.''
``They were sight-seeing over the (Gallatin) valley Saturday afternoon,'' said a friend, Pat Martin. ``The three people who died in this flight were all overflowing with joy about flight.''
The only piece of the plane that was easily identifiable was the tail section, said Mark Duffy of Central Helicopters, Inc., who helped remove the bodies and initially spotted the wreckage by the smoke. He said the survivor walked about a half-mile to three-quarters of a mile before he was spotted.
Weather ``was not too bad'' when the crash occurred, said Jim Brusda, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Great Falls. ``We were reporting clear skies below 12,000 feet,'' he said.
