Officials search for victims of Colorado plane crash


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MEEKER, Colo. — Search and rescue teams are still searching for victims after a Utah plane crashed in Colorado Thursday evening.

The Rio Blanco County Sheriff's Office said the county communications center received a report of a possible plane crash 15 miles west of Meeker, Colorado, around 6 p.m. Thursday. The witness who reported the accident said, "He heard a plane rev its engine, banked twice at a high altitude and then heard an explosion," the sheriff's office said.

The aircraft, reported to be a Bonanza 35 single-engine aircraft, left Salt Lake City Thursday en route to Granby, Colorado. Shortly after, the Denver Traffic Control Center reported that an aircraft disappeared off the radar.

The aircraft has a maximum occupancy of six passengers, but it was unknown how many passengers were on board, the sheriff's office said. Members of the sheriff's office and the Rio Blanco County Search and Rescue team searched the area Thursday night after receiving coordinates from the National Radar Analysis Team. Officials found several small items within the half-mile area including a plane wing, part of a propeller and one tire, the sheriff's office said.

The search resumed Friday at 7 a.m. and around 10:30 a.m., officials located more aircraft parts and what appeared to be one set of human remains, the sheriff's office said. The Rio Blanco Coroner's Office was notified.

The search is ongoing, and the number of victims is currently unknown.

More information will be posted as it becomes available.

Photo credit: Rio Blanco County Sheriff's Office
Photo credit: Rio Blanco County Sheriff's Office

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Faith Heaton Jolley

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