Grand Canyon wreckage may be of plane missing since 2011

A single-engine plane has been found wrecked in a remote area of the Grand Canyon, its lone occupant long dead, and authorities said on Tuesday they believe the crash may date back to 2011.

The small red plane was first reported to park rangers on May 20 by a group of hikers who spotted it smashed amid large boulders, the skeletal remains of a pilot still inside, National Park Service spokeswoman Emily Davis said.

Davis said bad weather prevented authorities from reaching the far-flung site by helicopter for several more days, when crews were able to remove the remains and then, using a cargo net, the badly damaged plane.

She said the wrecked aircraft appeared to match the description of a single-engine plane that went missing in March of 2011 but was never found.

“It’s in a pretty remote location and it’s a pretty small plane. Some of the boulders around it were bigger,” Davis said in explaining how the debris could have been overlooked in the vast canyon for more than four years. “Things can easily go missing here with the rugged terrain.”

She said the hikers had been on a boating trip in an isolated stretch of the canyon when they found the crash site while on a day hike.

The wreckage of the plane was taken to the south rim of the canyon for an investigation by National Transportation Safety Board investigators.