Air crash scatters mail on mountain

The U.S. Postal Service is currently recovering mail and packages scattered southeast of Great Falls after an Aug. 17 airplane crash that killed two Kalispell men.

A commercial air taxi delivering U.S. mail was en route from Billings to Kalispell when it crashed into the Belt Mountains southeast of Great Falls. Cargo was scattered in an isolated area at an altitude of roughly 9,000 feet.

³They¹ve been finding some of the mail, but some of the boxes are damaged and some of the mail was burned or disintegrated in the crash,² said Libby Postmaster Bruce Moog. ³That mail was strewn about the canyon.²

Mail lost in the crash includes letters and parcels sent to Kalispell or ZIP codes beginning with 599.

³The mail that has been recovered has been coming in and we¹ve been attaching a letter explaining what happened,² Moog said. ³I¹ve had people calling saying that they¹re missing a letter and asking if it¹s possible that it could have been on that flight. We just don¹t know.²

Customers who mailed letters or packages to a 599 ZIP code around the date of the crash should consider re-sending the mail, if possible.

³A lot of people know about the situation, because they¹ve been calling me and letting me know what they¹ve heard about it,² Moog said. ³We¹re doing everything we can.²