A single-engine plane that crashed in a remote area of the San Juan Mountains near Telluride earlier this month, killing the two men on board, dropped hundreds of feet in one minute, a preliminary report found.
The plane, a Cessna T206H, took off from Grand Junction at 1:41 p.m. Sept. 3 and was conducting aerial survey work before it crashed, according to the released Friday.
The two men on board, identified as 34-year-old Randy Ramirez and 20-year-old Blake Klobuchar, had completed the day’s work and were on their way back to Belen, New Mexico, when the plane crashed. The men worked for Vexell Imaging Inc., Ramirez as a pilot, and Klobuchar as a camera operator, San Miguel County Coroner Emil Sante said.
The plane was passing Dolores Peak on its way back when it dropped about 450 feet in one minute and crashed into the mountainside.
A hiker in the area said it was “windier than normal” that day, federal officials wrote in the report. Wind speeds in the area were recorded at 9 mph with gusts up to 28 mph.
Federal officials will publish a final report for the crash, including the probable cause and contributing factors, within two years, according to the NTSB.
Ramirez had been flying since 2016 and working with the surveying company since April, Sante said. Klobuchar had worked for the company since March 2025.
Search and rescue teams responded to the crash after someone reported seeing smoke on the north side of Dolores Peak, about 15 miles southwest of Telluride. Around the same time, Denver Air Traffic Control reported the plane missing.
