"You can see the mountain - it's on fire."

Chilling 911 calls on the Nov. 23 plane crash on Superstition Mountain released by PCSO

Pinal County Sheriff's Office, Nov. 28, 2011 - The Pinal County Sheriff's Office released some of the 911 calls they received on the Nov. 23 plane crash on Superstition Mountain. The initial crash into the side of the mountain at Flat Iron and two subsequent explosions killed six people, among them three children heading from Mesa to Safford to spend Thanksgiving with their father's family. Their father, an employee of the small aircraft company that owned the plane, was among those killed. The first call came in Nov. 23 at 6:31 p.m. The caller states, "You can see the mountain - it's on fire."

The PCSO announces that the trails leading to the top of Flat Iron are now open. They have already  already received a call from a hiker who took it upon himself to visit the scene and recovered a piece of bone fragment.  He brought the fragment to the Lost Dutchman ranger station and left it with no contact information.  PCSO does NOT want anyone taking pieces of wreckage or remains discovered from the site.  This is a major public safety concern. 

NTSB, FAA, DPS and PCSO spent several days recovering everything possible, but, given the nature of the crash and extremely difficult environment to work in, there will be items that were missed or simply could not be reached.

PCSO is asking the public to please be respectful and treat this as a living memorial.  Do NOT touch/remove anything from the crash site.