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Saturday, September 15, 2012

Plane wreckage found near Strawberry

    BREAKING NEWS    
Three found dead at crash site

The wreckage of a crashed airplane with three occupants has been confirmed to be that of a flight reported missing from Falcon Field Airport in Mesa, Ariz.
The wreckage of the airplane was spotted Saturday morning (Sept. 15) northwest of Strawberry, Ariz. by an Arizona Department of Public Safety helicopter that was involved in search and rescue operations. The plane is in a rugged section of Calf Pen Canyon northwest of Strawberry, Ariz.
Three bodies were found after search and rescue personnel from Gila County Sheriff’s Department reached the crash site, which was in a remote, rugged location accessible only on ground.
Confirmation matching the identity of the occupants to those of a missing flight is pending further investigation. The occupants of the missing flight are: Taylor Bennell, instructor; Lucas Westenberg, student pilot; and Rob Van Den Heuvel, passenger.
Search and rescue resources had been looking for a 1999 Piper Archer owned by CAE Global Academy, Mesa, since it was reported missing Thursday evening.
The airplane was on a training flight and left Falcon Field Airport shortly after 2 p.m. Sept. 13. The flight was scheduled to fly to Winslow, Ariz., then south to Payson, Ariz. before returning to Mesa.

1 comment:

Mike Palmer said...

My friend and I fly this route (Winslow to Payson) often in our homebuilt airplane. We're usually at 8500 feet crossing the rim to Payson because the surrounding terrain is about 7500 feet. Since the "pattern altitude" at the Payson airport is higher than Calf Pen Canyon, it appears this group purposely went low, flying into the canyon to sight see. Not wise.

I know one other person who did the same in this area years ago. He too crashed. (But survived.) Flying is safe if the pilot is safe.