MISSOULA, Mont. - A witness reports hearing a plane that crashed outside Missoula Sunday, killing two men.
One of them was a Deer Lodge man known for his role on the History channel's "Ice Road Truckers." Darrell Ward was 52 years old.
Mark Melotz, 56, of Arlee, was also killed when their Cessna plane went down along Interstate 90 east of Missoula. Officials say they were trying to land on a small air field at Rock Creek.
A federal investigator is in Missoula, retracing what happened after Malotz stopped at the Missoula airport, picked up Ward and then headed east to Rock Creek.
The Rock Creek airport is a strip of land cluttered with weeds and clumps of grass. It's not used very much.
Dan Ekstrom won't forget what he saw Sunday.
"Looked to me like he was doing what they call touch and go's on the airport, he wasn't landing every time or maybe he was never landing, I didn't pay that much attention to him, but I could hear the engine really roar when he'd take back off after touching down," Ekstrom said.
The sheriff's department says Malotz bought the Cessna just last week from a man in Ronan. It is one of just two accidents that Ekstrom can remember.
For now, fans, friends and family remember the men lost along the side of I-90.
Ward was reportedly in talks to make a new documentary about finding plane wrecks.
Officials aren't sure which man was piloting the craft. It may take up to a year to get answers.?