Single-engine plane crash in Colorado kills 1

BOULDER, Colo. - A single-engine plane crashed and caught fire on a road north of Boulder's airport Monday, killing at least one person.

The preliminary investigation indicates the plane hit the ground propeller-first near Boulder Municipal Airport just after 7:30 a.m., said Cmdr. Jeff Hendry of the Boulder County Sheriff's Office. However, the circumstances leading up to the crash, the number of people on board, the name of the plane's owner wasn't immediately known, he said.

The plane, a Mooney D20C, was taking off when the crash took place, according to authorities. The pilot was flying from Boulder to Broomfield, according to CBS Denver.

The Boulder County coroner's office did not release the name of the 35-year-old victim, but Scott Shatzer with the National Gay Pilots Association confirmed to The Associated Press that the organization's executive director, Steven Moore, was killed in the crash.

No one on the ground was injured.

"Steven, we love you, we will miss you, and we will be forever indebted to you for all of the passion you put into your work with NGPA," Shatzer wrote on the organization's website.

Firefighters from the Boulder Rural Fire Department were able to put out the blaze quickly.

Jeff Slater, who was working on gas lines near the airport's runway, told the Daily Camera the plane "didn't sound right" when it took off.

"It was choking and sputtering pretty bad," he said. "It sounded horrible."

The crash is being investigated by the sheriff's office and the National Transportation Safety Board.