Ouray County officials announced during a press conference at 5 p.m. CST on March 27 that the Gadsden-registered single engine plane that crashed into a reservoir at Ridgway State Park had been raised from the bottom of the reservoir and removed from the water.
All five passengers on board the plane were recovered and positively identified at Jimmy Hill, 48; Katrina Barksdale, 40; Kobe Barksdale, 11; Xander Barksdale, 8; and Seth McDuffie, 14, all of Gadsden.
The plane crashed on March 22. Witnesses reported seeing the plane come out of the clouds in a flat spin, then hit the water.
A spokeswoman for Ouray County said the coroner had not given a cause of death for the plane’s pilot and passengers.
She also expressed the condolences of the people of Ouray County for the families of those in the crash. While none of them where from the small county in Colorado, she said, the tragedy had touched their community.
A relative one of the families expressed appreciation for the compassion shown to family members during the days after the crash, and the dedication local authorities had shown in retrieving the plane and their loved ones.