DENVER — A strong downdraft may have caused a single-engine plane registered to the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) to crash in Larimer County last month, killing the pilot and a photographer and seriously injuring a mission observer.
The National Transportation Safety Board released on Friday a preliminary report on the Nov. 23 crash of a Cessna 172 on Storm Mountain near Drake that left pilot Susan Wolber and aerial photographer Jay Rhoten, both CAP members, dead.
The flight’s mission observer, Randall Settergren, was seriously injured in the crash and was airlifted to a medical facility via helicopter by the Colorado Army National Guard.
According to the NTSB, the flight’s mission was to conduct aerial photography of the area for the Red Cross' emergency response planning. The CAP flight took off from Northern Colorado Regional Airport around 9:30 a.m. that day.
Settergren, the sole survivor, told investigators that after completing the mission, which consisted of flying large circles over mountain roads and a valley, Wolber flew the Cessna to the south of the mission area, and within seconds, he heard Wolber say, “Oh [expletive].”
“The pilot lowered the nose and started to turn. He stated that the airplane seemed to drop and encountered a downdraft. He heard the airplane hitting trees, and the next thing he remembered was being on the ground,” the NTSB report states.
Settergren told NTSB investigators that the flight nurse on the helicopter that rescued him “made a comment that the winds were swirling during the rescue.” He said the airplane and engine were operating normally throughout the entire flight.
The NTSB said the accident site was located on a steep slope in rough mountainous terrain, and the wreckage was about 75 ft downslope from a ridgeline. AirTracker7 footage of the site showed the single-engine Cessna 172 had broken up, with both of the wings and the nose separated from the rest of the aircraft.
Wolber was an experienced pilot, and her friends told Denver7 last month that she was passionate about her job.
"We've lost a person on the planet who was making a difference for people," said Bill Snodgrass, president of the FNL Pilots Association. "The thing that [Susan] was really most passionate about in aviation was introducing young women, or women to aviation."
The official cause of the crash and additional findings will be released at a later time.
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