Rescuers on the hunt for a downed plane were led to its grisly crash site by an unusual source: One of the victim’s smartwatches. Three people were killed in the crash involving a plane that took off from West Yellowstone Airport close to midnight on July 17, the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. A vast search mission was launched the following afternoon when a report was made about a possible airplane crash, with rescuers using data showing “the last location” of a smartwatch of one of the plane’s occupants to guide the hunt for the missing aircraft, according to the sheriff’s office. Search planes located the crash site “in dense timber” to the south of the town of West Yellowstone that afternoon. “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,” the sheriff’s office said. The statement did not clarify whose smartwatch data was used in the search. GoFundMe page set up to support Robey’s family noted that he passed away in a “sudden plane crash” last Thursday, adding: “[W]e are heartbroken over his loss, but grateful that he was doing what he loved: flying.”
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