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Due to bad weather, they landed their aircraft at Grand Junction, Colo., where they spent Wednesday night, said Bill Kaupp’s daughter, Jaime Metzger.

They left on the final three-hour leg of their flight to Albuquerque on Thursday morning, she said.

“The weather looked good, just a few clouds, that was it — we had no concerns,” said Metzger.

On Friday afternoon, the family posted on their Facebook page that an emergency beacon believed to be transmitting from the plane had been detected near Dove Creek, Colo., near the border with New Mexico.

Air rescuers couldn’t approach the site due to a snow storm, but ground crews were headed towards it, they said.

A Snapchat photo posted by Clint Kaupp shortly after takeoff, and some radio transmissions about the aircraft’s flight path, were the last communications from those on board the Piper, said Metzger.

Kaupp had been flying off and on for the past 30 years and was an extremely careful aviator, his daughter said.

Kaupp even preferred not to fly over mountains and had indicated by radio that he was veering away from them, said his daughter.

The 42-year-old aircraft carrying the four had been deemed safe in a recent inspection made prior to it being put up for sale, said Metzger.

The two Kaupp men have helped operate a grain farm in New Dayton, south of Lethbridge, that’s been in their family for five generations.

Investigation of the crash has been taken over by the National Transportation Safety Board.

BKaufmann@postmedia.com

on Twitter: @BillKaufmannjrn