This day in history: 'Man in the Sky,' well-known Spokane pilot, dies in Montana plane crash. Reardan fire destroys businesses

From 1976: Roy Shreck, a well-known pilot from his decades in Spokane, died in a plane crash near Silesia, Montana. He was piloting a plane from Cody, Wyoming, to Billings with a Cody family aboard. Donald and Dorothy Loos died in the crash, but their 9-year-old daughter Angie survived after being pinned in the wreckage for 26 hours. She was in stable condition at a Billings hospital. Shreck was an important figure in Spokane’s aviation history, and was nicknamed “The Man in the Sky” by Spokane newspapers.

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Scoop News DeskSpokane · Published Monday, August 3, 2026 at 7:15 AM UTCUpdated Monday, August 3, 2026 at 7:26 AM UTC

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Four deer rushed into the water at Priest Lake “and stopped behind the pumps which were running full blast – they showed no fear of the pumps and stood there, trembling while they watched the fire leaping through the trees.” One firefighter said he was fighting the fire near Kalispell Bay when a skunk “dashed from the brush and took shelter” at the man’s feet. “Mr.