On Monday, a leader in the North Dakota state Senate announced the death of a senator, his wife and their two young children, who died in a plane crash in Utah.
Sen. Doug Larsen was killed on Sunday evening, after the plane he was traveling in crashed shortly after taking off from Canyonlands Airfield about 15 miles north of Moab, Utah, according to a Grand County Sheriff’s Department statement posted on Facebook. The crash killed all four people aboard the plane.
Larsen’s death was confirmed on Monday in an email from Republican Senate Majority Leader David Hogue sent to the other senators in the chamber that was obtained by The Associated Press.
“Senator Doug Larsen, his wife Amy, and their two young children died in a plane crash last evening in Utah,” Hogue wrote in his email. “They were visiting family in Scottsdale and returning home. They stopped to refuel in Utah.”
I’m not sure where the bereavement starts with such a tragedy, but I think it starts with prayers for the grandparents, surviving stepchild of Senator Larsen, and extended family of Doug and Amy,” Hogue added. “Hold your family close today.”
Larsen, a Republican, was first elected to the North Dakota Senate in 2020 and chaired a panel on industry and business legislation. He was a business owner, as was his wife Amy, and was a lieutenant colonel in the North Dakota National Guard.
Larsen represented a district including the city of Mandan, a municipality with a population of just under 25,000, which neighbors the state capital Bismarck to the west across the Missouri River.
The National Transportation Safety Board reported in a post on X on Monday afternoon that the cause of the crash was still unknown and is currently under investigation
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