A small plane made a “forced landing” Monday afternoon near Woody Creek outside of Aspen and the two people on board are OK, according to the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office.

In a news release sent Tuesday morning, the Sheriff’s Office said Tyler and Kristina Noel of Verona, Wisc., were in the 2017 Cirrus SR22T that crashed “into a densely wooded area on an extremely steep mountainside” after the plane’s built-in parachute was deployed.

According to tweets from the Aspen airport, the “small GA aircraft made an emergency landing and parachute was deployed.” It went down about 4.5 miles north of the airport, they said.

@MtnRescueAspen members are in the field making their way to the crash site now which is located in a remote section of wilderness in the Woody Creek area. No injuries have been reported by the pilot. NTSB and FAA have been notified. @FlyAspenAirport — Pitkin Co. Sheriff (@PitkinSheriff) January 28, 2020

Pitkin County Sheriff’s Deputy Alex Burchetta said Monday night a group from Mountain Rescue Aspen was deployed after the Sheriff’s Office was notified about 3:25 p.m. of the plane in distress.

Snow conditions made the trek difficult, the Sheriff’s Office said. Rescuers got to the site about 6:25 p.m. and set out to return with the Noels at 9:15 p.m. They were out of the field just after midnight, according to Tuesday morning’s update.

Mountain Rescue Aspen had 31 members work the incident, with about 25 going into the field on skis, snowshoes and snowmobiles, the Sheriff’s Office said.

The National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA have been notified, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Burchetta said the Sheriff’s Office was notified of the crash at 3:30 p.m.











