Four people died in a plane crash Thursday near the Colorado-Utah border shortly after leaving Grand Junction, according to the Civil Air Patrol.
The plane left Grand Junction Regional Airport about 10 a.m. Thursday, and was bound for Albuquerque. It fell off radar about 30 minutes later, the air patrol said.
Jen Knellinger, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Wing Civil Air Patrol, said search crews found the wreckage of the Piper Lance on Friday evening in an area rutted with canyons and covered in foot of snow, according to The Associated Press.
She initially said the plane crashed near the town of Dolores, but the air patrol later said it went down across the border near Monticello, the AP said.
According to The Daily Sentinel in Grand Junction, the Piper Lance airplane is registered to Kaupp Family Farms in Alberta, Canada. Bill Kaupp, 64, was the pilot of the plane, his son Jon Kaupp said, adding that his brother, Clint Kaupp, and friends Tim Mueller, 28, and Ron McKenzie, 66, also were killed.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were investigating.
Jon Kaupp reportedly told The Daily Sentinel on Friday that the plane was grounded Thursday in Grand Junction by snowy weather.
In a Facebook post on Friday, San Juan County Sheriff Rick Eldredge said searchers found the plane about 5 p.m. and his office would turn the investigation over to the Federal Aviation Administration.
A Civil Air Patrol crew from New Mexico assisted in the search, along with authorities from Utah and Colorado, according to the air patrol.
