Park dispatch received a report of missing plane in the Bullfrog area late on the evening of Sunday, April 6th. According to the FAA, the plane had taken off earlier in the day from Durango, Colorado, but failed to return as scheduled. Attempts to find it at known landing strips proved unsuccessful. On the morning of April 7th, the operator of a tour plane reported sighting the plane and pilot on a sandbar in Zahn Bay on the San Juan River. The uninjured pilot was picked up by Classic Helicopter, based in Page, Arizona. The pilot said that he’d made an emergency landing due to equipment failure. He at first attempted to walk out, then returned to the plane and manually activated its emergency locating transmitter. The park and county sheriff’s officer are conducting a joint investigation.
