Searchers today recovered the body of a 51-year-old Utah inventor, who crashed his single-engine Cessna 182 about one-tenth of a mile from Lake Josephine in the Holy Cross Wilderness area, authorities say.
The victim was Michael Loveless of Price, Utah, who crashed following a business trip to a Denver trade show, according to friends and 2nd Lt. Tricia Sargent of the Colorado Civil Air Patrol.
Loveless was an inventor who patented wet-dry shop vacuums, dustless attachments to heavy equipment and a vacuum for fireplaces. He also was a Mormon bishop at at a congregation for college students at the College of Eastern Utah in Price, said Gary Blake, a family friend.
“He had an enthusiasm for life,” Blake said. “He was always having a fun day. He was very well liked.”
He was married and had two adult children.
Loveless, who bought the Cessna in June, left Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport at about 2:45 p.m. Tuesday and was headed to Aspen and then home to Utah, according to authorities.
A Colorado National Guard helicopter found the wreckage at about 2 p.m. today, said Shannon Cordingly, spokeswoman for the Eagle County Sheriff’s Department.
The last radar contact with the aircraft was at about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday near Lake Josephine, Cordingly said.
She said two ground crews near Lake Josephine also headed to the wreckage. One crew was from Vail Mountain Search and Rescue, and the second was from Western Eagle County Search and Rescue.
Cordingly described the terrain around the lake as “rugged.” Maj. Mark Young of the Civil Air Patrol said weather conditions were poor when the plane crashed in deep snow.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the Federal Transportation Safety Board will investigate the cause of the crash, said Mike Fergus, an FAA spokesman in Oregon.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
