Plane Owned by John Denver Crashes; Pilot Dies

The pilot of a small plane owned by singer John Denver was killed Sunday afternoon when it crashed into Monterey Bay, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman said, but the identity of the pilot was not yet known.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Steve Aitkins said late Sunday that a lifeguard had recovered the pilot’s body. Denver, 53, is a licensed pilot and has a vacation home in Monterey.

“They cannot make an ID from the body,” Aitkins said late Sunday.

Walter Gerash, the singer’s Boulder, Colo.-based lawyer, told The Times early today: “It doesn’t look good.”

“I heard from the sheriff’s office that [Denver] was seen at the airport today,” Gerash said.

The National Transportation Safety Board late Sunday dispatched an investigator to Monterey.

Aitkins said the ground crew at the Monterey Airport confirmed that Denver owns the plane, a single-engine one-seater. It crashed into the bay near the town of Pacific Grove about 5:40 p.m. Sunday.

It took off from Monterey Airport at 5:27 p.m. Its destination was unknown.

The plane, made of fiberglass with a single engine and two seats, was considered an “experimental” aircraft, and was possibly home-built, Pacific Grove Police Lt. Carl Miller told Associated Press.

Miller said several people on a nearby beach witnessed the crash.

The plane was flying about 500 feet in the air “when it just sort of dropped unexpectedly into the ocean,” Miller said. “When it hit the water, it broke into numerous parts.”

One witness told San Francisco Bay Area television station KTVU that she saw a puff and heard a “popping” sound before the crash.

Carolyn Pearl said the plane “kind of went up a little bit and absolutely straight down, not spiraling, just absolutely straight down. . . . I thought it was doing some kind of acrobatic move, or something, and then realized it wasn’t.”

Denver’s wholesome image and folk-tinged melodies made him a huge star in the 1970s. Among his hits: “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” “Rocky Mountain High,” “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” and “Annie’s Song.”

His music has earned a total of nearly two dozen gold and platinum albums.

As the 1970s drew to a close and Denver’s career began to lose momentum, he became both an ardent environmentalist, founding the nonprofit Windstar Foundation, and unabashed enthusiast for the U.S. space program.

In 1993, he became the first nonclassical musician to receive the Albert Schweitzer award for a “life devoted to music and humanity.”

Recent months, meantime, have seen hints of a Denver revival. A beer commercial showed patrons of a bar joining together for a chorus of “Rocky Mountain High,” and a greatest-hits album has been climbing the country-western charts.