Father and two teenage sons killed in crash near Swampy Pass

The boys were 15 and 13, flying with their father. All three died when their small plane crashed in the mountains near Swampy Pass in Gunnison County, Colorado, on Saturday, October 24, 2026. By the county’s Sunday update, emergency crews had located the wreckage and found everyone aboard dead. ^{2 8}

The Gunnison County coroner identified the father as Mark Hendrickson, 46, and his older son as Alan Hendrickson, 15. The Colorado Sun reported that Hendrickson was piloting the aircraft. Accounts agree that the youngest victim was his 13-year-old son, but differ on the spelling of the boy’s name. ^{1 3}

The confirmation of three deaths replaced an initially incomplete account of a response still underway. In its October 24 report, CBS Colorado said crews were working to reach a crash site off Ohio Creek Road; the number aboard and the severity of any injuries were then unknown. Those were unanswered questions at that stage, not evidence that anyone had survived. ⁵

By Sunday, October 25, the county had supplied the findings from the scene. The Denver Gazette, reporting on the county’s release, said emergency crews had located the crash site and all three occupants were found deceased. The precise time responders reached the wreckage has not been established in the available reporting. ⁸

The emerging chronology separates the estimated crash time from the moment authorities received the report. A Sunday NTSB update, reported by the Denver Gazette, placed the crash at about 8:11 a.m. Saturday. The county’s account put the report to the Gunnison Regional 911 Center at about 9:20 a.m. These are different events, not competing descriptions of the same moment. ⁸

The 8:11 a.m. estimate should not be read as an exact impact timestamp. Nor does the 911 notification time establish how long any particular part of the response took. Without a documented discovery time, the public chronology cannot show the duration of the approach to the wreckage or identify a specific obstacle crews encountered. ⁸

The location descriptions also became more specific. Early reporting referred to a crash off Ohio Creek Road; later accounts placed it in a remote wilderness area near Swampy Pass, in the vicinity of Crested Butte. They concern the same October 24 incident, not two separate crashes. The exact geographical relationship between the road and the wreckage remains undocumented in the available accounts. ^{5 3 9}

The Forest Service describes Swampy Pass Trail No. 439 as lying within the West Elk Wilderness, branching from the Low Line Trail and climbing toward the pass. That helps locate the surrounding mountain country. It does not pinpoint the aircraft or establish which route responders used to reach it. ²¹

Two details in the family’s identification remain unresolved. CBS Colorado’s October 25 account names the youngest boy as Chase Hendrickson and describes all three victims as residents of Rifle. October 25 reports from Aspen Public Radio and The Colorado Sun instead name him as Case Hendrickson and describe the family as being from New Castle. ^{1 2 3}

Case and New Castle have broader support in the available reporting, including The Gazette’s account. But the original coroner release has not been independently obtained to settle either discrepancy. The consistent facts are the boy’s age, his relationship to his father and brother, and the deaths of all three aboard. ^{4 1 2}

The aircraft was initially identified as a Piper PA-28 through FAA-attributed reporting. The later NTSB update gave the more specific model as a PA-28-235 and said it crashed into mountainous terrain. That describes the collision; it does not explain what led to it. No cause has been established, and the available findings do not support assigning blame to weather, pilot conduct or an aircraft malfunction. ^{1 8}

The Gunnison County Sheriff’s Office, National Transportation Safety Board and U.S. Forest Service are investigating the circumstances, according to the county-attributed reporting. The flight’s origin and destination remain unknown in the confirmed account, and no date has been announced for the next update or an accident-specific preliminary report. The initial uncertainty over who was aboard and whether crews had found them has ended. The question of why this father and his two sons came down in the mountains remains open. ^{2 3 8 9}