On Sunday, January 5^th, a plane in Aspen, Colorado slid off the runway at Pitkin Country Airport in a second attempt of landing the plane. The pilot had said on the first landing attempt, “ I’m going to make a second attempt. I have a tail wind of 30 knots.” The plane slid off the side of the runway, rolled, and instantly lit into flames.

“It was almost as if a fuse was lit and it went that quickly down the runway and the heat and smoke were pretty devastating,” said eye witness Bruce Gordon. This incident left one person dead and two others injured. Co-pilot Sergio Carranza , 54 years of age from Mexico was found dead in the crash according to the Pitkin County Sheriff’s office.

The Sheriff’s office said, “ The injuries were traumatic in nature, but they were not thermal. So the fire never reached inside the cabin as far as we can tell.”

The National Transportation Safety Board was said to be investigating and the airport will remain closed for the time being. The plane was coming from Mexico and stopped in Tucson, Arizona, before flying to Aspen.

According to the transcripts of the cockpit recorder there was no mayday said, and the only concern with the landing would be the gusty winds. There were witnesses who had reported the plane crash on Twitter and posted smoke was coming from the site.