The National Transportation Safety Board tonight said it could be the spring snowmelt before an investigation into a fatal plane crash Saturday near Silverton can be completed.
Wreckage is scattered over more than a mile on the side of steep mountain at about 10,000 feet elevation, authorities have said.
Four people from Durango were killed when the light single-engine plane crashed during snowfall enroute to a holiday party at Snowmass Village.
The bodies of pilot Steve Osborne, 59, and his wife, Jan, 50, were recovered today.
The bodies of Jan Osborne’s Alpine Bank of Colorado branch coworkers, Tyler Black, 24, and Gena Rych, 26, were found earlier.
The Socota TB-21 aircraft was flying between Durango to Aspen airports when it crashed about 50 miles into the flight, investigators said..
Federal investigators with the NTSB joined the investigation today.
Plane crash investigations typically take about six months to complete, but this one might take a year because of the terrain and snow, according to the
After the snow melts, the airplane’s insurer will remove the remains of the aircraft to a hangar in Greeley to help investigators determine the cause, the San Juan County Sheriff’s Department stated tonight.
Complete remnants of the crash may not be revealed until summer because winter weather and snow is already deep-rooted at such a high elevation.
“Witnesses heard the airplane circling over the area immediately prior to the accident,” the NTSB said in a statement tonight. “The witnesses did not observe the airplane or the accident due to weather conditions.”
