Authorities have identified the individuals killed in a Utah plane crash over the weekend.
On Tuesday a state official confirmed that North Dakota state senator Doug Larsen (R), his wife and their two young children were killed in the Sunday evening plane crash.
The Grand County Sheriff's Department said the single-engine Piper plane carrying state Senator Doug Larsen, 47, and his family crashed Sunday evening about 15 miles north of the town of Moab, shortly after it refueled at the Canyonlands Airfield. The sheriff's office said the senator was the pilot and all four people on board the plane were killed.
“Senator Doug Larsen, his wife Amy, and their two young children died in a plane crash last evening in Utah,” Republican Senate Majority Leader David Hogue wrote in an email to his fellow senators, obtained by The Associated Press. “They were visiting family in Scottsdale and returning home. They stopped to refuel in Utah.”
Hogue added: “I'm not sure where the bereavement starts with such a tragedy, but I think it starts with prayers for the grandparents, surviving stepchild of Senator Larsen, and extended family of Doug and Amy. Hold your family close today.”
An NTSB spokesman said a board investigator traveled to the scene Monday “to begin to document the scene, examine the aircraft, request any air traffic communications, radar data, weather reports and try to contact any witnesses. Also, the investigator will request maintenance records of the aircraft, and medical records and flight history of the pilot.”
An investigation into the crash is ongoing.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) honored Larsen in a statement as “a father, husband, coach, entrepreneur, businessman, state senator and lieutenant colonel in the North Dakota National Guard who committed himself fully to each of those roles with an unwavering sense of honor and duty.”
“First Lady Kathryn, Lt. Gov. Miller and I are deeply saddened by the heartbreaking loss of Sen. Doug Larsen, his wife, Amy, and their two young sons. As a legislator, he was a tenacious advocate for individual rights and the freedoms he defended through his military service,” the governor said.
And, “We extend our deepest sympathies and prayers to his family and friends and join his legislative colleagues, National Guard brothers and sisters and the Mandan community in mourning the tragic passing of Sen. Larsen and his family.”
Larsen served 29 years in the North Dakota Army National Guard, first enlisting on March 14, 1994, as a combat engineer. He mobilized twice, to Iraq from 2009-10 and to Washington, D.C., from 2013-14, according to Gov. Doug Burgum's office.
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