Two Found Dead at Plane Crash Site in Pecos Wilderness, State Police Say
Oct. 1--Search crews found two bodies inside the wreckage of a small plane near Hamilton Mesa in the Pecos Wilderness on Sunday morning, said Bob Rodgers, a New Mexico State Police search and rescue resource officer.
State police did not officially confirm the crashed plane discovered in the wilderness area southwest of Mora was the one that went missing Thursday evening following a stop to refuel at Santa Fe Regional Airport.
Rodgers said the plane was so badly damaged crews were not able to determine its tail number. However, National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Terry Williams provided a tail number Tuesday and confirmed the NTSB was investigating.
According to Federal Aviation Administration records, the plane was registered to owners in Colorado.
The two people who died in the crash were not identified.
An FAA spokeswoman told The New Mexican on Monday the crashed Grumman AA 5-A was found about 10 miles southwest of Mora.
State police have said a single-engine, four-seat aircraft carrying a pilot and one passenger from Colorado had stopped to refuel in Santa Fe on Thursday. The plane took off from Santa Fe at 5:49 p.m. Thursday, and air traffic control lost contact with it at 6:01 p.m. The plane's emergency beacon pinged a mile south of Terrero in the Pecos Wilderness, its last known location.
John Graham, public affairs officer for the Civil Air Patrol's Santa Fe region, said air searches were suspended Sunday morning after "a credible report" of an explosion and fire on Hamilton Mesa, in the upper end of the Pecos Wilderness.
Ground crews reached the crash site near the mesa around 9 a.m. Sunday, according to state police.
Rodgers said the crash site -- mountainous terrain with heavy tree growth at an elevation between 9,000 and 10,000 feet -- was first spotted by air. Civil Air Patrol, the New Mexico National Guard and New Mexico State Police search and rescue crews participated in the search.
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