TO: Boulder County Area Media
FROM: Cmdr. Phil West, #303/441-3621
RE: Supplemental Media Release re: Sunday’s Fatal Plane Crash
Case #06-4300
This supplemental media release provides additional information relating to Sunday’s fatal plane crash near Corona Pass in extreme southwestern Boulder County. The original media release may be found on the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office web-site at
www.bouldersheriff.org
The victims of the crash were a 19 year-old Boulder woman and a 30 year-old Boulder man; their names have not been released by the Boulder County Coroner’s Office yet. Both died on impact when their plane, a single-engine, two-seat Citabria 7KCAV impacted the south-facing slope of a mountain ridge just south of Betty Lake, approximately ½ mile east of the Continental Divide, at an elevation of approximately 11,300 feet.
People camping in the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area near Bob Lake initially heard the crash about 7:30 a.m. and reported it to the Grand County Sheriff’s Office. Upon arrival, Grand County authorities found that both occupants were dead and that the actual scene of the crash was in Boulder County. Medical personnel from a “Flight for Life” medical helicopter that responded to the site verified the deaths at approximately 9:35 a.m.
The remote location and difficult terrain, in conjunction with a violent mid-afternoon thunderstorm, made the extrication and removal of the bodies doubly difficult. Members of the Rocky Mountain Rescue Group packed in extrication tools on foot and subsequently removed the bodies on wheeled litters, acting under the direction of investigators from the Boulder County Coroner’s Office and Boulder County Sheriff’s Office. Approximately 40 people, representing the Rocky Mountain Rescue Group, Boulder, Grand, and Gilpin County Sheriff’s Offices, Boulder County Coroner’s Office, Grand County Fire Department, and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), along with a helicopter from “Flight for Life” participated in the operation. Rescuers and investigators were finally able to clear the scene at approximately 10:30 p.m. Sunday evening
The National Transportation Safety Board will conduct further investigation in the hope of establishing the cause of the crash. The wreckage will remain on-site until the NTSB can make arrangements to remove it.