Crews recovering plane crash wreckage in the Monte Cristo area. (Photo: Weber County Sheriff’s Office)
WOODRUFF — A small plane was removed Thursday from a crash site southwest of Bear Lake, two weeks after it when down near the border of Weber and Rich counties.
Weber County officials said, “The recovery team did an outstanding job airlifting the plane and prepping it to be towed off the mountain.”
On Jan. 24, a multi-county search and rescue operation began around 7:45 p.m. after reports of the plane crash on Highway 39.
Officials with the Weber County Sheriff’s Office said the pilot, Alyssa McColly, a 41-year-old Oregon woman was traveling in the single engine plane when it went down in the Monte Cristo area.
Deputies said a DPS helicopter was dispatched shortly after the crash and was able to make contact with the woman.
She was later transported to a nearby hospital with minor injuries and was treated for cold exposure.
Officials with the Rich County Sheriff’s Office said McColly was in the middle of cross-country trip that had begun in Illinois.
She claimed she departed Colorado Springs in the morning on Jan. 24 and stopped for fuel several times in Wyoming.
The woman had just taken off from her final stop at the airport in Evanston and had climbed to an altitude of about 10,500 feet when she might have developed weather-related aircraft problems.
Dispatchers were told the woman made contact to friends and family via text message that she had crashed but very limited cell service was available to provide details.
The cause of the crash is currently under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
will@cvradio.com