COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- Two people were killed when their small single-engine plane crashes at the Colorado Springs Airport while trying to land around noon Wednesday.
Air traffic controllers said they lost contact with the plane, and when ground crews went looking for it, they found the wreckage next to one of the runways.
Conditions were foggy and visibility was low at the time of the crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is now on-scene investigating what caused the plane to go down, killing both people on board.
It was a single engine Mooney M20E that crashed as it tried to land in heavy fog.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the pilot had already aborted one landing attempt and was going around for another try when air traffic controllers lost contact.
"At 12:01 p.m. we were notified by FAA air traffic control that they had lost communication with an aircraft attempting to land at Colorado Springs Airport," Assistant Airport Director John McGinley said.
The wreckage was found next to the north end of the east runway, and the airport was immediately shutdown.
Flights resumed on a single runway about an hour and a half later.
The NTSB is investigating and trying to determine what role weather played in the crash.
"At the time of the accident we had low visibility conditions at the airport," McGinley said.
The crash and the weather combined to cancel and delay numerous flights during a busy holiday travel day.
"Heading through Denver to Seattle, trying to make it home," one passenger said.
Kyle Romasco-Kelly is a freshman at Colorado College trying to get home for Christmas. But like many passengers at the Springs airport, his journey began with a bus ride.
"Right now my 3:25 flight out of the Springs to Denver is canceled, and they are going to be putting us on a bus," Romasco-Kelly said.
Airport officials said by mid-afternoon most of the delays were from the weather not the crash.
The names of the two victims have not been released, but the plane was coming from Rapid City, S.D.
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Original story:
Two people died after a small plane crashed at the Colorado Springs Airport Wednesday afternoon.
Officials said the plane lost contact with FAA Air Traffic Control around 12:01 p.m. after taking off from Rapid City, S.D. around 9:18 a.m. mountain time. The plane crashed on the north end of the east runway, causing flames to emerge.
The pilot aborted one landing attempt and was in a flight pattern for another before the crash.
The plane was a single-engine, M20E aircraft, and both the pilot and passenger died. The plane's registered owner is from Rapid City.
The airport was shut down, but the west runway has now reopened. The east runway is still closed, and several flights have been delayed. As of 2:30 p.m., four departing flights and two arriving flights were cancelled, and two more departing flights were delayed.
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