Wreckage Of Medical Plane Found On Mountainside; 3 Presumed Dead

ALAMOSA, Colo. (AP) _ A medical plane slammed into a mountainside, leaving three people presumed dead Friday amid the wreckage, authorities said. <br/><br/>Archuleta County administrator Bob Campbell could

Friday, October 5th 2007, 6:48 pm

By: News On 6

ALAMOSA, Colo. (AP) _ A medical plane slammed into a mountainside, leaving three people presumed dead Friday amid the wreckage, authorities said.

Archuleta County administrator Bob Campbell could not provide additional details, but said a helicopter crew was trying to locate the victims.

The twin-engine plane disappeared Thursday night during a flight from Chinle, Ariz., to Alamosa, about 160 miles southwest of Denver.

A pilot, a flight nurse and a paramedic were on the Beech King Air C-90A, said Mike Fergus, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman.

The wreckage was found in mountainous terrain just west of the Continental Divide near 11,677-foot high Charleys Peak, which is about 35 miles southwest of Alamosa. High winds and fog prevented an air search Friday morning, but the weather cleared enough around noon for the search to begin, Archuleta Undersheriff John Weiss said. The plane was spotted about 1:45 p.m.

The plane is registered to Scenic Aviation Inc. out of Blanding, Utah, which operates an air ambulance service called Eagle Air Med Inc. Its crew were on their way to pick up a patient in Alamosa for transport to Colorado Springs, said Dustin Duncan of the International Association of Air Medical Services, who was acting as a spokesman for the company.