Four people missing after vehicle plunges into remote Selway River

Four people are missing after a vehicle in which they were traveling ended up in the upper Selway River in Idaho County backcountry.

The crash was reported about 5:45 a.m. Monday to the Ravalli County Sheriff’s Department in Darby, Mont., according to a news release from the Idaho County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff Doug Giddings said Tuesday there originally were six occupants in the vehicle, a Chevrolet Suburban, and they reportedly were on a bear hunt. Two of the occupants, who are from Georgia, managed to escape from the vehicle after it landed in the river. They were rescued by Two Bear Air from Montana and have returned to their home state, Giddings said.

There has been no word on the other four occupants, which reportedly include two brothers from New York.

“The Suburban went into the river; it ended up on its top, wheels up … and we can’t recover it because the river is too high,” the sheriff said. “They ran off the road and dropped into the river in a hard-to-get-to place. We have Montana search-and-rescue people, helicopters on standby and (Idaho County Undersheriff Jim Gorges) on scene in Darby, but we just weren’t able to get to that vehicle without killing somebody else. We’re doing everything we can and we’re going to continue to do everything we can.”

Besides the Idaho County contingent, law enforcement officers from Ravalli County in Montana and the Clearwater County Backcountry Helicopter team are assisting with the search. Giddings said the crash happened about 50 miles west of Darby in the Selway-Bitterrroot Wilderness. The bear hunters had been camped at Paradise Campground.

The sheriff’s office has yet to release the names of the vehicle’s other occupants.