A North Dakota state senator died in a plane crash in Utah with his wife and two kids Sunday night after refueling.
Sen. Douglas Larsen, his wife Amy Larsen, and two children were all killed upon impact when the plane hit the ground “shortly after taking off from the Canyonlands Airfield north of Moab,” the Grand Country Sheriff’s Office posted on Facebook.
The report of the crash came in about 8:30 p.m. on Sunday night, according to the sheriff’s office. Just after midnight, the post was updated to say that “four occupants, unfortunately, did not survive the crash,” Larsen and his family were identified in a press conference on Monday.
The Associated Press verified the deaths of Larsen and his family through an email sent by Republican state Senate Majority Leader David Hogue to other senators.
“Senator Doug Larsen, his wife Amy, and their two young children died in a plane crash last evening in Utah,” Hogue wrote in his email obtained by the AP. “They were visiting family in Scottsdale and returning home. They stopped to refuel in Utah.”
The southern Utah town of Moab, where the crash occurred, is located about 475 miles northeast of Scottsdale, Arizona.
The Larsen family flew to Canyonlands Regional Airport, drove into Moab and spent a couple of hours there before returning to the airplane and taking off, air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board Fabian Salazar said in a Monday press conference.
The small single-engine Piper Cherokee plane crash is under investigation by NTSB. Officials will be gathering information over the next few days and then move the aircraft to a facility for further testing.
“We look at three big areas: that is the man, the machine and the environment,” said Salazar.
The cause of the crash has not yet been determined. A preliminary report will be released in 14 days, while an in-depth final report could take up to a year and a half.
Relevant information can be submitted by the public via witness@NTSB.gov.
Who is Sen. Douglas Larsen?
Larsen has served in the North Dakota Senate since 2021, according to his North Dakota Legislative biography.
He served in the North Dakota National Guard for 29 years and was a business owner with his wife, according to a statement from North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
“Sen. Larsen was a father, husband, coach, entrepreneur, businessman, state senator and lieutenant colonel in the North Dakota National Guard who committed himself fully to each of those roles with an unwavering sense of honor and duty,” wrote Burgum.