The plane crashed on Sunday evening shortly after taking off from Canyonlands Airfield about 24 kilometres north of the desert recreation town of Moab, according to a Grand County Sheriff’s Department statement posted on Facebook.
A state senator from North Dakota, his wife and their two young children died when the small plane they were travelling in crashed soon after a refuelling stop in Utah, a Senate leader said on Monday. Doug Larsen’s death was confirmed on Monday in an email that Republican Senate Majority Leader David Hogue sent to his fellow senators and was obtained by The Associated Press.
The plane crashed on Sunday evening shortly after taking off from Canyonlands Airfield about 24 kilometres north of the desert recreation town of Moab, according to a Grand County Sheriff’s Department statement posted on Facebook. 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,” Hogue wrote in his email. “They were visiting family in Scottsdale and returning home. They stopped to refuel in Utah.”
“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,” Hogue wrote. “Hold your family close today.”
A bouquet of roses was draped over Larsen’s desk in the Senate chamber, just above the nameplate that reads: “D. Larsen – District 34.”
Probe underway
The crash of the single-engine Piper plane was being investigated, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a post on X, the social media website formerly called Twitter.
An NTSB spokesman said a board investigator was expected to arrive at 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.”
Officials didn’t release the plane’s origin or final destination. After landing at the airport, the travelers took a car into Moab before taking off in the refueled plane, NTSB spokesman Fabian Salazar said at a news conference at the airport.
The agency will have a preliminary report on the crash within a couple weeks, followed by a final report in a year to year and a half, Salazar said.
Who was Doug Larsen?
Larsen was a Republican first elected to the North Dakota Senate in 2020. His district comprises Mandan, the city neighbouring Bismarck to the west across the Missouri River. Larsen chaired a Senate panel that handled industry and business legislation. He and his wife, Amy, were business owners.
Larsen served 29 years in the North Dakota Army National Guard. He mobilized twice, to Iraq from 2009-10 and to Washington, D.C., from 2013-14, according to Gov. Doug Burgum’s office. He was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal, Bronze Service Star and Army Aviator Badge among other honours.
Burgum in a statement said Larsen “was 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. As a legislator, he was a tenacious advocate for individual rights and the freedoms he defended through his military service.”