Area Also Known As "TWA Canyon" For 1955 Airline Accident

A Cessna 172 went down Saturday night in Pinnacle Canyon, in the Sandia Mountains east of Albuquerque, NM.

There had been no missing plane report before the emergency locater transmitter signal was detected about 9 pm Saturday. An out-of-state Air Force command post alerted New Mexico authorities of the locator beacon, according to the Associated Press.

Crews onboard a New Mexico Air National Guard Black Hawk helicopter, working with state SAR teams, located the accident site about 6:45 pm Sunday evening.

"It was able to actually locate a crash site that at first he thought was an old crash site, but once he was able to get in and hover right over it he found that it was a (new) crash site," said Gary Williams of state police search and rescue.

A medic with the National Guard was lowered to the scene of the wreckage in rugged terrain Sunday and confirmed at least one fatality, but had to abandon the search because of bears in the vicinity.

Several teams hiked over the rough terrain to the crash site Monday. They hike required rappelling down a 20-foot cliff and a nearly 800-foot vertical slope, according to KRQE-13.

Game and Fish officers first secured the area from further bear activity.

The pilot has been tentatively identified as Dr. Robert Iacono, 65, a neurosurgeon from Redlands, CA. After speaking with family members, it is believed he was the lone person on the plane when he impacted the mountain during storms Saturday night, according to KOB New Mexico Channel 4.

The crash site is near an area known as TWA Canyon -- named after TWA Flight 260, a Martin 404, that went down in that area on February 19, 1955, killing all 16 persons onboard. Pieces of that particular wreckage are still visible, and the site has become a popular tourist and pilgrimage site among hikers and accident victims' family members.

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.nm.ngb.army.mil