Scottsdale police: 6 dead after small plane crashes at TPC

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UPDATE (April 11)

Scottsdale Police officials say they have established the preliminary identification of all six victims onboard the plane.

The victims are identified as 26-year-old Erik Valente, 28-year-old James Louis Pedroza, 23-year-old Mariah Sunshine Coogan, 28-year-old Anand Anil Patel, 22-year-old Helena Lagos, and 23-year-old Iris Carolina Rodriguez Garcia.

According to officials, family notifications have been made, and a final verification will be established, pending medical exams with the Maricopa County Medical Examiners Office.


Original Story

All six people aboard a small plane were killed when it crashed on a golf course in a Phoenix suburb shortly after taking off from a nearby airport, police said Tuesday.

The identities of those killed in the Monday night crash in Scottsdale have yet to be released. Nobody on the ground was hurt, said Officer Kevin Watts, a Scottsdale Police Department spokesman.

Watts said the plane had just taken off from the Scottsdale Airport, but no information was immediately available on its planned destination.

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The plane went down on the TPC Scottsdale Champions Golf Course. That course is the sister to the Stadium Course where the Waste Management Phoenix Open is held each February.

Investigators were at the site Tuesday morning, examining the burned wreckage next to a tree on a dirt area, with seven vehicles parked on nearby turf and others nearby.

National Transportation Safety Board investigator Eliott Simpson says the goal is to collect as much evidence as possible and not try to jump to conclusions about the cause of the fiery crash. He says investigators will document how the plane hit the ground and determine if it hit any trees on the golf course and examine the burned area of terrain.

Scottsdale police say they'll release the identities of the six victims once they're determined by the Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office, but it's unknown when that process will be completed.

According to Federal Aviation Administration officials, the plane is a Piper PA24.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.