During the first weekend of May, shocking headlines came out saying that a plane crash had occurred in Teller County. And seeing as how the county does not have any airports, a plane crash within its borders is a very rare occurrence.
According to multiple news reports, a small engine aircraft crashed in the southeastern part of the county near its border with Fremont County. The aircraft contained four passengers and according to the county coroner, none of them survived the crash.
The plane crash was said to have occurred in an area about two and a half miles from Phantom Canyon Road in a region with mountainous and rocky terrain. The single-engine Cessna T-41B airplane crashed shortly after it took off from the Fremont County Airport near Canon City at 9:30 a.m. on May 6.
Authorities did not know the plane had wrecked until they were notified late that Saturday night that a plane flying from the airport near Canon City never reached its destination of the Centennial Airport near Denver. And then the next morning at around 8:30 a.m. a plane flying around in the area noticed the wreckage and alert authorities with a location.
Due to the remote location and extremely rugged terrain first responders had to hike into the area to get to the wreckage. According to the Teller County Sheriff’s Office, the first responders arrived to the scene at about 11 a.m. on May 7.
Authorities also reported that the plane had caused a small fire to ignite upon impact. Later that Sunday night. The Teller County Coroner confirmed that all four people aboard the plane were deceased.
On Monday, Coroner Stephen Tomsky identified the four bodies as Florence, CO residents Bruce Claremont, Laurie Aves, and Roger and Katherine Duncan. Last week, several residents from the town of Florence grieved the loss of the beloved members of their community.
It was then reported last week that the investigation was taken over by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). By the end of last week, no new information was release surrounding how the plane crashed or who the pilot was.
According to the Teller County Sheriff’s Office’s Public Information Officer Lieutenant Renee Bunting, the sheriff’s office was still waiting to hear more information from the federal agencies surrounding the crash at the end of last week. Bunting said that the last time a plane crash was reported within the county’s borders was in 1962. She said the previous crash over 60 years ago occurred in the same general area as the recent wreck.
