By TIM TRAINOR Montana Standard missoulian.com | Posted: Monday, March 21, 2011 12:05 am | Loading…

Font Size:Default font sizeLarger font size.BUTTE – A Butte man died Saturday when the Cessna airplane he was piloting crashed in inclement weather about 2 miles west of Montana Tech.

David Gates, 54, died in the accident. He was alone in the plane when it crashed into uninhabited public recreation land west of Butte around 4 p.m. A brief but powerful snowstorm had struck the city at the same time.

Gates was an executive with NorthWestern Energy, serving as the company’s vice president of wholesale operations since 2003. He worked for Montana Power Co. and NorthWestern Energy Inc. for more than three decades, according to the company.

National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration officials were at the crash site Sunday but did not release any additional information.

Press coverage was not allowed at the scene of the accident, which had been turned over to investigators from both the NTSB and FAA by Sunday afternoon.

Gates’ twin-engine Cessna 310 had departed from Butte’s Bert Mooney Airport on Saturday morning en route to the Great Falls airport, where it landed without incident. It then departed from Great Falls at 3:19 p.m. for a return trip to Butte.

According to Allen Kenitzer, spokesman for the FAA, an alert notice was issued on the plane as it circled over Butte and repeatedly missed the approach to Bert Mooney Airport. There was significant weather in the area at the time of the crash, including high winds and visibility-limiting snow.

According to Kenitzer, the pilot issued three “mayday” calls before crashing.

Around 4 p.m. local resident and KXLF-TV anchorwoman Laurel Staples called authorities after she heard a plane strike the ground west of her home.

It took search and rescue crews more than three hours to locate the wreckage. Gates was pronounced dead at the scene.

A day later, his family, friends and co-workers find his death hard to fathom.

Steve Huntington, Bert Mooney Airport board president, remembered Gates as an avid and passionate aviator who rarely went a week without flying.

“He was always in airplanes,” said Huntington. “It was one of the passions of his life.”

Gates had served as Bert Mooney board president until only a few weeks ago, when his term ended and Huntington’s began.

“He really took (heading the airport board) seriously,” said Huntington. “Flying was just part of his regular existence, like getting in a car for you and me.”

But Gates’ love of flight paled in comparison to his love of his family.

“I rarely heard a guy talk so fondly about his wife,” said Huntington. “He was one of the nicest, most professional people I’ve ever met.”

And Gates will be missed inside that profession, another of his lifelong passions.

“This is a very, very sad day for the entire NorthWestern Energy family,” said Bob Rowe, NorthWestern’s president and CEO in a press release. “We have lost a great leader and a great friend.”

Rowe said Gates, a native of Lewistown, was “talented, hard-working, ethical and compassionate.”

“We will miss his leadership, wisdom, warm humor and especially his friendship. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family during this difficult time,” Rowe said.

His work, most recently with the Mountain States Transmission Intertie project, took him to the highest levels of state government.

“Nancy and I are sending our thoughts and prayers to all those who knew and loved David Gates,” said Gov. Brian Schweitzer in a news release. “We pray especially for his entire family including his wife, Lorrie, and his children, Jessi and Dustin, as they cope with this tremendous loss.

“Dave was a good man, a community leader, and a business leader committed to making Montana and America a better place for future generations, especially by having the vision and commitment to move our state in the direction of producing and delivering renewable electrical power to the nation.”

Funeral arrangements are pending.

Wasn't it about this time 2 years ago when the Pilatus crashed in Butte? Butte is kind of a hole, I doubt atc could have helped him once he dropped through 10k.

Nosedragger wrote:Wasn't it about this time 2 years ago when the Pilatus crashed in Butte? Butte is kind of a hole, I doubt atc could have helped him once he dropped through 10k.

Correct, the Pilatus crashed exactly 2 years ago today, Mar 22, '09. NTSB still hasn't posted a final report on that one.