Sedona plane crash results in injuries to occupants

UPDATE: The injured passengers involved in the plane crash have been identified as 65-year-old Robert Coester from Gilbert, Arizona, 71-year-old Charles McCurry from Pennsylvania.

Coester was transported to Verde Valley Medical Center with non-life threatening head injuries and a broken left ankle. McCurry was transported to Sedona Medical Center and then airlifted to Flagstaff Regional Medical Center where he was treated for multiple facial fractures, facial lacerations and contusions to his lungs. Hospital personnel report that he is in stable condition.

An initial investigation of the crash site reveals that the F-1 Rocket brand single engine aircraft lost power on its final approach to the Sedona Airport. According to Coester, the plane — owned and built by McCurry — sustained damage after McCurry made a banking manuever to direct the aircraft to a safe area on Chavez Ranch Road.

Though the plane has been removed from the crash site, the NTSB is still investigating the incident.

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SEDONA, Ariz. — An experimental aircraft carrying two passengers crash landed in an area south of the Sedona airport Saturday morning.

According to the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office, YSCO deputies were dispatched around 11:30 a.m. to a call of a plane — an F1 Rocket experimental model — going down near Chavez Ranch Road and Cathedral Vista Drive. Though the plane’s two occupants suffered non-life threatening injuries, each was treated by EMS personnel who arrived on the scene.

The pilot of the aircraft was transported to Verde Valley Medical Center, while his passenger was taken to nearby Sedona Medical Center.

The plane had reportedly flown from Chandler to Prescott earlier in the day and was en route to Sedona Airport before the tumultuous emergency landing.

NTSB and the FAA were notified of the incident and will be conducting an investigation, as the cause of the crash is currently unknown.

Names of the involved parties will be released once verified.