BLACK HAWK — One man was killed and another was injured after their single-engine plane crashed in the mountains above 10,000 feet, the Gilpin County Sheriff’s Office said.
The two men were on their way to a graduation in Boulder and had taken off from Glenwood Springs, said Gilpin County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Cherokee Blake. She said the crash happened Thursday near Black Hawk, about 40 miles west of Denver.
The names of the men were not released late Thursday, but Blake said the pilot was a 55-year-old and a 23-year-old was the passenger.
She would not say whether the pilot or the passenger died, but Alpine Rescue Team spokesman Bill Barwick said the injured 23-year-old was flown to a Denver hospital and that the sheriff’s office was waiting for “better daylight and better weather” today to bring down the body of the deceased.
Barwick said about 48 people, some on snowmobiles, assisted in the rescue above 10,400 feet. He said they faced heavy winds, thick forrest, steep terrain and snow.
“It was very cold up there,” Barwick said.
A Blackhawk helicopter was used to lower rescuers to the crash.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Mike Fergus in Seattle said one of the people on board called 911 from a cell phone after the crash.
