A state senator from North Dakota, his wife and their two young children died when the small plane they were traveling in crashed in Utah, a Senate leader said Monday.
Doug Larsen’s death was confirmed Monday in an email that Republican Senate Majority Leader David Hogue sent to his fellow senators and was obtained by The Associated Press.
The plane crashed Sunday evening shortly after taking off from Canyonlands Airfield about 15 miles (24 kilometers) north of Moab, according to a Grand County Sheriff’s Department statement posted on Facebook. The sheriff’s office said all four people on board the plane were killed.
It’s not evident from the article, but I did some additional digging to find additional details.
The plane was a 1966 Piper PA-23 (a 4-seater)…which means the plane was not being piloted by an unnamed 5th person but by either Doug or his wife (and probably by Doug, considering he was a North Dakota Army National Guard Lieutenant Colonel in command of the 112th Aviation Battalion).
they mention near the end of the article that his wife is reputed to have completed her first flight or something according to their social media, and that the NTSB spokesperson said that it wasnt clear who was piloting
Somehow I completely missed that from the article. Thanks for pointing it out.