The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating how 6 people, including 1 Instagram model, were killed when their single-engine plane crashed shortly after takeoff onto an Arizona golf course Monday night, April 9th. Scottsdale officers responded to reports of a downed airplane at the TPC Scottsdale Champions Course, located just north of Scottsdale Airport around 9:00 p.m. Model Mariah Sunshine Coogan, 23-years old, along with Erik Valente 26-years old, James Louis Pedroza 28-years old, and Anil Patel 28-years old, Helena Lagos 22-years old, and Iris Carolina Rodriguez Garcia 23-years old all died in the fiery crash, Scottsdale police said.
Coogan, who had more than 27,000 Instagram followers, attended Cardinal Newman High School in California before leaving during her junior year to become a model, according to her mother. The group had been en route to Las Vegas before the crash.
National Transportation and Safety Board Investigators are working to determine whether aircraft was equipped to carry that many people. The aircraft was built in 1970, according to Federal Aviation Administration records. Though the plane was listed as a 4-seater, Simpson said there were various iterations and modifications that could have been made that year, expanding its seating capacity. Crews were working to collect perishable evidence from the scene Tuesday. The wreckage will then be transported to a site in Phoenix for further evaluation. The FAA also will assist in the investigation, according to Allen Kenitzer, a spokesman at the agency.
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