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Private plane crashes into Pikes Peak
THE GAZETTE
A small private airplane crashed on Pikes Peak on Saturday evening, noticed by a tourist on the peak who saw the windshield glinting in the sun.
El Paso County Search and Rescue crews were trying to reach the plane late Saturday and didn’t know whether the plane had two or four seats, or whether it was carrying more than one person. No details were available about the condition of anyone in the aircraft.
Steve Sperry, Search and Rescue spokesman, said search crews believed the plane crashed between Lake Moraine and Reservoir No. 2, in the Windy Point area, at about 11,800 feet elevation. The tourist reported the crash at
the Pikes Peak Highway tollgate, and a Pikes Peak ranger verified it was a plane, Sperry said.
Sperry said the plane is white with red detailing. He said those typically are the markings of a Cessna high-wing aircraft, but that had not been verified as of late Saturday.
A six-person search crew set out, on foot, toward the crash site about 9 p.m.
A helicopter from a Denver hospital, called in because local hospitals’ helicopters were in use, circled the area numerous times but did not see wreckage, Sperry said, because it was too dark and the helicopter’s searchlight wasn’t strong enough to illuminate the area below.
Sperry said that typically the service ceiling for an aircraft that size is 10,000 feet, but he added that he didn’t know whether flying any higher would cause the engine to fail.