An Erie, Colorado, plane crash killed five people on Sunday when a single-engine Piper PA-46 went down near Erie Municipal Airport not far from the runway, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
TheDenverChannel.com identified the victims as pilot Oliver Frascona, 67; his girlfriend Tori Rains-Wedan, 41; and her three children — Mason Wedan, 15, and 11-year-old twins Austin and Hunter.
Officials told the television station that it looked like Frascona, a well-known real estate attorney in the area who lived in Erie's Airpark neighborhood, was trying to land at the time of the accident.
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"[The wreckage] will be transported [Sunday] to a secure facility in Greeley, Colorado, where we will continue to investigate both the airframe and the engine," NTSB air safety investigator Courtney Leidler told TheDenverChannel. "The landing gear was stowed at the time of the accident."
Jon Goodman, a partner with Frascona at the real estate law firm Frascona, Joiner, Goodman, and
Greenstein in Boulder, told CBS Denver that he was saddened by the crash.
"Everyone on that plane touched the lives of many," he said. "The law firm morns their tragic death. May they all live on in the memories of those that loved them."
Tom Van Lone, former Erie mayor and
Frascona's neighbor, told the Boulder Daily Camera that the attorney moved to the area nearly two years ago and was an avid flyer.
"He was a really nice guy and a good pilot with a lot of training hours," Van Lone said. "He flew a couple of times a week."
Rains-Wedan reportedly owned Educated Minds, which provides continuing education classes for real estate brokers. Mason Wedan attended Broomfield High School and his brothers started at Erie Middle School this year, Boulder Valley School District spokesman Briggs Gamblin told the Daily Camera.
Gamblin told the newspaper that grief counselors would be available Tuesday at both schools for students who requested them.
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