Victims identified in Superstition Mountain plane crash near Apache Junction
The two individuals who were aboard a plane that crashed in the Superstition Mountains area near Apache Junction have been identified Tuesday afternoon by the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office.
Those individuals are pilot Simon Nurrish, 45, and passenger Stuart Gregory, 53.
The cause of the crash is still under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Just before 8 a.m. Saturday, the plane was flying in formation with two more planes as part of a recreational flight heading to Payson from Falcon Field Airport in Mesa, the NTSB said.
While flying over Apache Junction, one of the planes, a single-engine Compagnie Daher TB 30 Epsilon, crashed into the mountains and was consumed by a post-crash fire. The circumstances that caused the crash were "undetermined," the safety board said.
A Pinal County Sheriff's Office air support helicopter was able to locate the crash site, which is in an extremely rugged and vertical rocky area, the board said. Recovery efforts were underway Saturday morning at the site of the crash and two men's bodies were recovered.
The board asked anyone who may have witnessed the accident to contact witness@NTSB.gov. The investigation was ongoing.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Superstition Mountain plane crash victims identified
