At 11:20 a.m. Sunday, three pilots were en route from Telluride Regional Airport to Cortez, Colorado. After the Arizona Cloudbusters Inc Beechcraft 35-33 Debonair “disappeared,” the Civil Air Patrol instituted a search and found the wreckage a mile from the airport. Sherry Anderson, 57, and Sherman Anderson, 64, of Phoenix, and Eric Durban, 48, of Mesa, died in the single-engine plane crash. There was light snow, one mile visibility and light wind at the time of takeoff. Shortly after takeoff, the plane impacted mountainous terrain then caught fire.
The Andersons were commercial pilots. Durban was a military pilot. They were members of Arizona Cloudbusters Flying Club.
Their last communication was with Telluride airport on takeoff at 12:40p.m. which is when ATC instituted the search. The plane was spotted at 5:17 pm.
An investigation is underway.
Envoy Air flight MQ-3721 made an emergency landing in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on November 28th.
Delta Airlines flight DL-30 had to return and make an emergency landing in Atlanta, Georgia, on April 18th.