Retired Denver Police Lieutenant and Wife Killed in Cessna 340 Crash, Paulden, Arizona
Retired Denver Police Lieutenant Mike Hughes was killed in a Cessna 340 plane crash on Friday along with his wife, Joy. The owner and presumably the pilot of the plane, James Parrish, and his wife Lisa, also died in the crash. The plane departed from Bullhead City, Arizona for the 160 mile trip to the Prescott Airport in Prescott, AZ. Witnesses saw the plane clip some trees and then appear to explode on impact at the Gunsite Academy firearms training site in Prescott. Hughes has been an instructor at the renowned firearms training center since 1991.
According to a report on Denver’s 9News, witnesses say that the small plane clipped trees and may have struck a radio tower before exploding on impact.
Gunsite Academy’s Facebook page gave a fairly detailed account of the accident:
“The aircraft made an extremely low pass over the ranch north to south. He then attempted another extremely low pass east to west. The route of flight was over Coopers home (controversial Gunsite founder and former owner, Jeff Cooper), over the barn, the old ProShop and the office. The right wing of the aircraft was severed from the aircraft when it struck the radio antenna mast (40’ agl) at the north end of the barn. The wing rolled over the aircraft and the aircraft rolled to the right and impacted the ground, inverted, 150 yards west of the office. The debris field started at the barn and ran all the way to the point of impact. The aircraft burst into flames upon impact.”
FAA and NTSB officials have been notified although it is not known how the government shutdown will impact the crash investigation.
Gunsite Academy is a popular firearms training facility, established in 1976 by Jeff Coopers as the American Pistol Institute. Earlier this year, journalist Katie Pavlich wrote a firsthand account of training at the Academy.
According to photojournalist Carlos Chavez, within hours of the crash “armed citizens” blocked entrance to the facility (and location of the crash).
Mike Hughes and his wife Joy also owned and operated Raven Company, a firearm training company in Aurora, Colorado.
