Along with his wife and two young children, North Dakota’s Doug Larsen tragically lost their lives in a plane crash in Utah. The family was en route back home after spending quality time with their relatives.
Majority Leader David Hogue, a fellow legislator, confirmed the demise of the Republican senator, an incident that has since been widely reported in the media.
Under pilot Doug Larsen’s control, the plane met with the accident shortly after taking off from Canyonlands Airfield, located approximately 15 miles north of Moab. The Grand County Sheriff’s Department shared the sad news via a Facebook post, revealing that all four passengers onboard faced fatal consequences.
Further clarifying the circumstances, the sheriff’s department added, “A distress call indicated a solitary aircraft departing Canyonlands Regional Airport before tragically plummeting.”
As cited by CBS News, an email from Hogue detailed, “Senator Doug Larsen, his wife Amy, and their two young children perished in a plane crash last night in Utah. They were journeying home after a familial visit in Scottsdale, having made a pitstop in Utah for refuelling.”
Investigating the Crash
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has probed into the specifics of the small Piper plane’s crash. The immediate aftermath saw local emergency personnel and authoritative bodies rushing to the scene, their presence alerted by a medical aircraft that spotted the wreckage.
An NTSB spokesperson elaborated on the next steps and shared that a dedicated investigator is slated to reach the accident site on Monday. The primary objectives encompass documenting the scene, closely inspecting the aircraft, securing pertinent data, including air traffic communication logs, radar intel, meteorological updates, and initiating dialogues with potential witnesses. Furthermore, the aircraft’s maintenance logs and the pilot’s medical and flight records will be requisitioned.
A poignant reminiscence from a December 2020 Facebook post by Larsen highlighted his wife’s accomplishment of “her first flight as a pilot,” accompanied by an image of a quaint, orange aircraft.
Doug Larsen, who embarked on his senatorial journey in 2020 representing Mandan—a city adjacent to Bismarck over the Missouri River—also chaired a Senate committee focused on industry and business regulations. Besides his political engagements, Larsen, a lieutenant colonel, served in the North Dakota National Guard. Both he and his wife, Amy, were entrepreneurs in their right.
