fate, though none knew it, a huge forest fire erupted to the west. smoke billowed towards mckenzie s revised flight path. by now, mckenzie was on her way to graybold, wyoming. tiny airport tucked behind a ridge, hard to see from the air, through the smoky haze. white-knuckle landing. the message you got, it wasn t as easy this time? right. she let me know she got a little disoriented, things went well, there and able to go ahead and taxi over, tie the plane down. take a little break. reporter: she texted she ate lunch, refuelled and because one runway was closed for repairs, she used an alternate runway, heading in a different direction. still, the last leg was the easiest. following big horn river over the yellow tail dam, make landings at the billings around and a final flight back to where bobbi was waiting. of course, i m excited.
over the yellow tail dam, make landings at the billings airport and a final short flight back to laurel. of course i m excited. we re really rolling. don t have if a are to go here now. closer to home. it was mid afternoon. mckennedy mckenzie s mother hadn t heard from her in a while and suddenly sensed something off. i had that eerie feeling. her father driving to work felt it too. something just wasn t right, and so now we re out of town. i turned around and came back. bobbi expected to hear from mckenzie about 3:00. 3 came and went. she busied herself, stayed close to the phone and that went on, tick, tick, tick. yes. when did you start to worry? about 3:15. i started thinking, she should be there by now. bobbi called the billings tower. no one had heard from mckenzie.
fate, though none knew it, a huge forest fire erupted to the west. smoke billowed towards mckenzie s revised flight path. by now, mckenzie was on her way to graybold, wyoming. tiny airport tucked behind a ridge, hard to see from the air, through the smoky haze. white-knuckle landing. the message you got, it wasn t as easy this time? right. she let me know she got a little disoriented, but things went well, and able to go ahead and taxi over, tie the plane down. take a little break. reporter: she texted she ate lunch, refueled and because one runway was closed for repairs, she used an alternate runway, heading in a different direction. still, the last leg was the easiest. following big horn river over the yellow tail dam, make landings at the billings airport