Montana Sen. Tim Sheehy and a passenger were unharmed when the engine of the plane he was piloting failed and had to make an emergency landing near Ennis on April 10.
The Madison County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release that the emergency landing occurred in a private field and that Sheehy and the passenger were able to exit the aircraft safely. Neither Sheehy nor the passenger reported any injuries. The crash resulted in a “minor fuel” leak, but the sheriff’s office reported that first responders quickly contained the leak.
Mike Berg, Sheehy’s chief of staff, issued a brief statement Friday on X: “This afternoon, Sen. Sheehy was engaged in a routine flight training exercise, which he completes twice a year. The aircraft experienced mechanical engine failure. Sen. Sheehy and his co-pilot made an emergency landing in a field. Neither pilot was injured.”
On Monday, the Billings Gazette reported that the aircraft was a former Czechian fighter jet owned by billionaire NASA administrator Jared Isaacman. The New York Post reported last month that Isaacman was offering flights in the jet to government employees who do “exceptional work.”
In 2019, Sheehy was training with a flight instructor when the plane crashed into a home in Florida. The flight instructor was killed, and one of the home’s residents was injured.
According to a report in the Daily Montanan, a lawsuit was filed against Sheehy and the plane’s maintenance company, alleging negligence. The case was settled in 2024 before trial, while Sheehy was running for Senate against incumbent Jon Tester, the report said.
As part of that lawsuit, Sheehy denied any wrongdoing. The National Transportation Safety Board investigated the incident and blamed the flight instructor for missteps that most likely caused the crash, the Daily Montanan reported.
Sheehy is not the first Montana political figure to have been involved in a plane crash. In 1962, Gov. Donald Grant Nutter was killed in a plane crash en route to an event in Cut Bank. And in 1988, Secretary of State and gubernatorial candidate Jim Waltermire was killed in a plane crash returning from a campaign event in Glasgow.
Montana has among the highest small-aircraft crash rates per capita in the nation — ranked third behind Alaska and Wyoming, according to an MTFP analysis of aviation data from the National Transportation Safety Board.
This story was updated April 13, 2026, to include information about an airplane crash that involved Sen. Sheehy in 2019.
LATEST STORIES
Where air conditioning is most — and least — common in Montana
About 73% of occupied Montana homes had air conditioning in 2023, according to a new Census Bureau data series. But rates varied widely across the state, from nearly 96% in Custer County to less than 45% in Deer Lodge County. Montana’s overall rate is the fifth-lowest in the nation, and trails all of the states it borders.
A history runs through it: Zinke public lands bill follows long trail
Two decades of Wilderness debate took an unexpected turn on Sept. 9 when Montana Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke announced a bill creating 132,000 acres of new wilderness alongside 181,000 acres of forest restoration areas and 60,000 acres where motorized and bike recreation activity would be permanently authorized. Can Zinke get the bill through Congress before the end of the year?
After weeks of public outcry, Yellowstone County asks state to clarify 2025 data center law
In a letter signed this week, Yellowstone County commissioners asked local legislators to review a new law they said is stopping them from regulating the 5,000-acre project near Broadview by developer Quantica Infrastructure. The letter, approved Tuesday, is addressed to the “Members of the Yellowstone County Legislative Delegation” and asks them to “refine” a 2025 law called the Right to Compute Act. The Legislature is slated to reconvene in 2027.
