Coconino County Sheriff’s detectives were notified by the Coconino County Medical Examiner Office that positive identification was made of the two victims of Sunday’s aircraft crash on the Navajo Indian Reservation. The Coconino County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed the two victims were identified through dental records as 47 year old Charles Trotter of Liberty, SC and 15 year old Dakota Jacks of Pickens, SC.
The aircraft crashed in a remote area of the Navajo Indian Reservation in the northeast part of Coconino County. Coconino County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue and Detectives along with Arizona Department of Public Safety Ranger Helicopter responded to the scene.
The Air Force Rescue Coordination Center (AFRCC) had been investigating the report of an overdue aircraft with two males aboard destined for South Carolina. The AFRCC found the aircraft had departed Las Vegas, NV sometime Friday June 20, 2014, landed in Page, AZ and then departed Page at 1:30 pm Arizona time. The pilot had not filed a flight plan. The AFRCC found the last cell phone contact with the pilot’s phone was off a tower at Navajo Mountain shortly after the take- off from Page. The AFRCC then contact the Civil Air Patrol Wings from several states, who launched a multi-state search Sunday morning June 21, 2014.
Four Civil Air Patrol (CAP) Wings were involved in the search across four states, including Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. A ground search team was deployed to Tuba City from Arizona, and a Communications Team from Colorado was deployed to Page. At around 1:40 pm Arizona time, the Arizona Wing of the CAP located from the air the wreckage of a plane in a canyon. Wreckage matching the description of the missing aircraft was at the bottom of Peach Canyon.
Sheriff’s detectives were transported to the scene by the Arizona Department of Public Safety Ranger Helicopter based out of Flagstaff. Due to the remote nature of the canyon, access to the wreckage could only be made by helicopter. The bodies of the deceased were removed and transported to the medical examiner’s office in Flagstaff.
The CAP, an official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with more than 61,000 members nationwide. The CAP in its Air Force auxiliary role performs 90 percent of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and is credited with saving around 75 lives each year. In 2013 two lives were saved by the Arizona Wing of the CAP. Its volunteers also perform homeland security, disaster relief and drug interdiction missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies.
The cause of the crash is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.