4 killed in Teller County plane crash; victims identified

Four people killed in a small plane crash in Phantom Canyon were adults in their 50s and 60s from Florence and federal authorities are investigating, Teller County officials said Monday morning.

The dead were identified as Bruce Claremont, Laurie Aves, Roger Duncan and Katherine Duncan, deputy coroner Jill Schulman said.

They died at the scene where the Cessna T-41B crashed Saturday night in steep forest, igniting a fire, and searchers hiked roughly two miles through difficult terrain to reach the wreckage, said Schulman, who worked the scene Sunday.

“We know it was Saturday evening ….. The scene was charred, very charred. It is extremely difficult terrain. We had to get helicopters involved to fly over,” she said.

“It broke up quite a bit. The fire destroyed a lot. There were parts of the plane, like the wings, hooked in trees.”

Federal Aviation Administration officials were planning to investigate.

The plane was flying from the Fremont County Airport east of Cañon City to Centennial Airport south of Denver.

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