Most of the traffic at Santa Fe's airport is from private aircraft. | File Photo
A single-engine airplane crashed Monday night at Santa Fe Regional Airport.
The plane, a Mooney M20, appeared to have crashed on approach shortly before
8 pm, according to Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford. Santa Fe police confirmed to SFR Tuesday morning that one person died in the crash.
Tuesday evening, police identified the pilot as 73-year-old Larry Nelson of Wheat Ridge, Colorado.
Lt. Matt Champlin with the Santa Fe Police Department told SFR on Monday night that the wreckage was located about a mile southwest of "runway two," which could be a reference to the airport's main runway, 2-20. Champlin said early indications are that the pilot was the only one onboard, though he hadn't ruled out passengers. He said the there was a "heavy" fire.
City rescue crews and airport personnel were coordinating with the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board late Monday. The NTSB investigates general aviation crashes in the United States and was at the crash site Tuesday.
Lunsford said in an email that Nelson was not in contact with Santa Fe's control tower prior to the crash. Weather conditions shortly after the crash were around 28 degrees with clear skies and a light wind.
The Mooney M20 is a propeller plane, which gets its power from a piston-driven engine as opposed to a jet. Tail numbers, which act like license plates for aircraft, are often used as a first step in identifying wreckage and, potentially, who was onboard at the time of a crash; the tail numbers of the aircraft involved have not yet been made public.
While Santa Fe handles a growing number of commercial flights, more than 90 percent of the airport's traffic comes from private aircraft.
This is a developing story and new information will be added as it is received.
