Two die in plane crash near Echo Bay airstrip

Two people died after a small plane crashed near the Echo Bay airstrip Thursday night, according to the Clark County Fire Department.

The crash, which was reported shortly after 9 p.m., was about 10 miles south of Overton Beach, officials said.

When firefighters arrived on scene, they located a small plane that was on fire in a ravine, they said. When the blaze was put out, firefighters found two bodies in the wreck. The cause of the crash is still under investigation. The identities of the victims will be released by the Clark County coroner’s office when next of kin has been notified.

BULLHEAD CITY MAN DROWNS

A 37-year-old man from Bullhead City, Ariz., died after drowning at Cabinsite Cove on Lake Mohave Sunday, according to the National Park Services.

At 12:40 p.m., Lake Mead officials received a call saying that the man disappeared underwater, officials said. Initial reports indicated that he was swimming out to retrieve a raft that had blown away. Members of a dive class who were training in the area located the man about 40 feet underwater and brought him to the surface where lifesaving efforts were initiated, officials said.

The National Park Service, Arizona Game and Fish, Nevada Department of Wildlife and Bullhead City Fire Department responded to the scene. The victim was transported to an Arizona hospital where he was pronounced dead at 1:38 p.m., officials said. Winds were gusting to nearly 20 miles per hour at the time of the incident. The man, according to NPS, was not wearing a life jacket.

HIKER DIES, woman missing

The National Park Service is not planning any more coordinated searches for a Henderson woman who may have gone missing while hiking this month.

“The family has filed a missing person report with the National Park Service,” park service spokeswoman Christie Vanover wrote in an email Monday. “There are no plans for another coordinated search of the area, at this time.”

The Lake Mead National Recreation Area dispatch center received a call at 3:31 p.m. June 5 reporting that a body had been found about 150 yards from the Colorado River near Arizona Hot Spring.

A caller indicated 62-year-old James Edward Johnson Jr. and a woman — identified Friday as 35-year-old Christina Diane Montes — left to hike the trail on June 3. They did not return.

Rangers from the National Park Service and Arizona Department of Public Safety searched by air for nearly three hours. But when rangers found Johnson’s body, they did not find a woman or any evidence that she had accompanied him down the trail.

About 20 rangers and volunteers conducted another search Saturday after friends and family said she was supposed to go on the hike and was still missing, Vanover said.