The pilot and only occupant of a kit-built airplane was killed in a crash on the Pawnee National Grassland on Colorado’s Eastern Plains last week, federal officials said Friday.
The small aircraft took off from Rexburg, Idaho, and was heading to Goodland, Kansas, when it crashed at 12:50 p.m. July 12, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report.
Investigators found the airplane was heading southeast when it turned south and began descending about 90 seconds before the crash. A witness reported the engine sounded like it was running at full throttle and the plane did not try to come out of the descent before it crashed 28 miles northeast of the Greeley-Weld County Airport.
Federal investigators did not find any obvious mechanical issues in the plane’s wreckage but will continue to examine the debris, the NTSB said.
The plane, a Zenith CH 601 HDS, was owned by a man in Texas, Federal Aviation Administration records show.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
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