Searchers locate downed aircraft
Two victims in plane from Pinedale bound for Fort Collins, Colorado
by Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office
May 19, 2011
ROCK SPRINGS, WYOMING - Searchers have reached the site of a light aircraft crash in northern Sweetwater County and report that no one survived the mishap.
According to Sweetwater County Sheriff Rich Haskell in Rock Springs, pilot Gilmer Mickey of Englewood, Colorado, and his sole passenger, Bob Albert of Fort Collins, Colorado, left Pinedale, Wyoming Wednesday morning (May 18, 2011) in Mickey’s single-engine Bellanca 17-30A, bound for Fort Collins.
When the aircraft failed to arrive, authorities were notified. Air and ground search operations with sheriff’s deputies, Sweetwater County Search & Rescue volunteers, County Emergency Management personnel, and Civil Air Patrol aircraft were launched early Thursday morning (May 19), focusing on coordinates provided by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center.
Haskell said the craft was found at about 12:15 PM on Thursday. The crash site is in a remote area about 45 miles north of Rock Springs.
The cause of the crash is yet unknown.
Federal Transportation Safety Board investigators are due to arrive in Rock Springs on May 20, and will be coordinating their efforts with county officials.
For more information, contact Detective Dick Blust, Jr., Public Information Officer, Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office, (307) 922-5294.
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