The senator’s office said he was on a routine training exercise when the aircraft’s engine failed.
By Justin Franz MONTANA FREE PRESS
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.
