Victims of mid-air plane collision that killed 3 in Colorado identified

BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. — The three men killed in a mid-air collision involving two planes on Saturday morning in Colorado were identified Monday morning.

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According to KDVR, the Boulder County Coroner’s Office identified those killed as follows:

• Daniel Wilmoth, 22
• Samuel Fisher, 23
• Henry Butler, 69

A single-engine Cessna 172 carrying two people and a Sonex aircraft carrying one person, collided and crashed near Vance Brand Airport in Longmont just before 9 a.m. The planes then fell into two separate fields, KMGH-TV reported.

The cause and manner of death remain under investigation, the coroner’s office stated.

Air Safety Investigator Mike Folkerts with the National Transportation Safety Board told KMGH on Saturday that a flight instructor and student pilot were aboard the Cessna, which took off from Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport at around 8:43 a.m.

Another pilot in the Sonex took off from the Platte Valley Airpark in Hudson at around 8:38 a.m., Folkerts said.

Both planes had climbed to about 2,000 feet when they collided, KMGH reported.

“We’ll review the operational background of the pilots, their flight training and experience, and then we’ll perform a medical study on each of the pilots, including autopsies and toxicology reports,” Folkerts told the TV station.

All three men died at their respective crash sites, KDVR reported.

Both the NTSB and Federal Aviation Administration are investigating, with a preliminary report expected to be released within two weeks, KMGH reported.

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