Two killed in plane crash in Palmer Lake
The National Transportation Safety Board says two people were killed when a small airplane crashed on the southeast side of Palmer Lake Wednesday morning.
“The plane is a complete loss due to the fire. We are unable to identify a tail number and or whether or not there were any victims,” said Sgt. Mitchell with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.
The plane went down south of the railroad tracks that run through the northwestern El Paso County town.
The plane burst into flames after the crash. The fire spread into nearby grass, but firefighters were able to contain it. The fire burned less than a quarter of an acre.
“The Palmer Lake Fire Department did an excellent job getting to the scene quickly and extinguishing the fire before it became a threat to any civilians,” said Mitchell.
The FAA and the NTSB are investigating the cause. Investigators say wind could have played a role in the crash.
“We’ve had high wind warnings in the area along with fire alerts for the last several days,” said Mitchell.
Roger Moseley, a Palmer Lake resident and former Air Force test pilot saw the crash.
“I assume it was a loss of control due to turbulence or some other issue like an engine failure or even a medical issue. It’s just a very unusual place to impact the ground,” said Moseley.
Moseley says errors are common on windy days.
“There was a lot of wind out of the north and coming across the mountains through this path that would be quite turbulent. So if the pilot was trying to sneak over that low spot, that could have been a problem,” said Moseley.
Mosely says even if the pilot was experienced, it may not have been avoidable.
“It’s amazing how you can get trapped, even an experienced pilot or someone like me used to flying high performance airplanes, you can make some very tragic errors,” said Mosely.
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