For immediate release: July 21, 2025

At approximately 1:41 p.m. on July 18, 2025, West Yellowstone Dispatch received a call regarding a possible airplane crash. The U.S. Department of Transportation Aero Division reported that an aircraft that had departed the West Yellowstone Airport with three people on board just before midnight on the night of July 17 could not be located. Utilizing the last location of an occupants’ smart watch, two search planes were sent to search for the missing aircraft. At 2:13 p.m. the search planes confirmed the plane had been located crashed in dense timber just south of the town of West Yellowstone near South Plateau Rd.

Gallatin County Search and Rescue (SAR) deployed personnel to respond to the crash site. SAR teams including the West Yellowstone Section, Big Sky Section, Heli Team, and Comms team responded to the scene. SAR members located the downed airplane and confirmed all three occupants were deceased. The decedents were extricated from the plane and transported by helicopter where their remains were turned over to a Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office deputy coroner.

The cause of the crash is being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board.

The decedents have been identified as Tennessee residents, 60-year-old Rodney Conover and 23-year-old Madison Conover, and 55-year-old Kurt Enoch Robey of Utah. Next of kin notifications have been made to the respective families.

Sheriff Dan Springer would like to thank all the agencies who participated in the location and recovery of the decedents and the continued investigation into the cause of the crash. Assisting agencies include the Hebgen Basin Rural Fire District, U.S. Forest Service, Federal Aviation Administration, and National Transportation Safety Board.

Sheriff Springer would like to extend his deepest condolences to the Conover and Robey families for their respective losses.

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