A dad and his two teenage sons died Saturday when their small plane went down in the Colorado mountains. Mark Hendrickson was 46. His sons, Alan and Chase, were 15 and 13. The family lived in Rifle.
Dispatchers got the 911 call around 9:20 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 24. Crews rushed to a remote wilderness area near Swampy Pass in Gunnison County, on Colorado’s Western Slope. The ground out there is rough. Getting to the wreck took effort.
When rescuers finally reached the site, there was nothing they could do. All three people on the plane were dead.
On Sunday, the Gunnison County Coroner’s Office named them. Family members then confirmed on social media that the three were a father and his two sons.
The National Transportation Safety Board says the aircraft was a Piper PA-28-235. It hit mountain terrain at about 8:11 a.m. The call to 911 came in roughly an hour later.
The Hendrickson family has thanked the public for its respect, compassion and support. They called what happened a devastating tragedy.
The Gunnison County Sheriff’s Office, the NTSB and the U.S. Forest Service are all looking into the crash. Nobody has said what brought the plane down. What happened in the minutes before it hit the mountain is still unknown, and investigators say they will release more once they have it.
Gunnison County sent its deepest condolences to the Hendrickson family.
Leave a Reply