Man killed in plane crash identified, passenger hospitalized

BLACK HAWK - Professional golfer Jeff Maggert says the man killed Thursday in a single-engine plane crash near Black Hawk was his brother, Barry, of Carbondale.

Friends say 47-year-old Barry Maggert and 23-year-old Jonathan Holton were on board a Cessna when it went down. The Gilpin County Coroner's Office confirmed the men's identities Friday night. Holton managed to call 911 on his cell phone after the plane crashed.

Maggert's body was recovered on Friday afternoon, just before 6 p.m. Crews had been trying to reach the body since Thursday afternoon.

Professional golfer Jeff Maggert withdrew from The Players Championship golf tournament Thursday, according to ESPN.com, and told officials that his brother died in a small plane crash in Colorado en route to his son's college graduation.

The Gilpin County Sheriff's Department says the plane crashed about four miles west of Black Hawk in the Miner's Gulch area around 4:15 p.m. on Thursday.

The Aspen Daily News reported the 1965 Cessna was co-owned by Barry Maggert and Carroll Winkler, who said that Maggert was flying the plane to Boulder for his son's graduation from the University of Colorado. His son, Lee Maggert, one of two 23-year-old twins, was set to graduate Friday morning.

Holton told dispatchers he was covered in fuel, but was able to get out of the plane. He was taken to St. Anthony Central Hospital where he was treated for non life-threatening injuries and was released on Friday. His most severe injury was a broken ankle.

The Black Hawk Fire Department says the plane crashed near the Central City graveyard.

Authorities say ground rescuers were unable to reach the wreckage, so a helicopter was requested from Buckley Air Force Base and was able to get the survivor from the plane crash area.

Crews lowered themselves down from the helicopter to rescue the man.

The Civil Air Patrol says the survivor was brought onto the helicopter around 7:45 p.m. and the pilot was dead.

Barry Maggert is described by one of his close friends as a great man who will be greatly missed.

"Barry's a great family man first. His kids and wife meant everything to him of course. He was a structural engineer who had a very sucessful engineering firm," said T.J. Joiner, a friend of Barry Maggert.

Maggert wrote a column for the local paper and was the chairman of the Libertarian Party in Garfield County.

"With any small town that suffers this kind of loss, its a tightknit community. A lot of people knew him beyond his political involvement," said Jeff Stroud, managing editor of the Valley Journal in Carbondale. "He was also involved as his kids were growing up. He was a youth baseball coach, so he was involved on a lot of levels there."

Maggert was also the first-ever golf coach at Roaring Forks High School in Carbondale. He established the program for free six years ago before the district had any funding for the program.

Joiner says Maggert had a great passion for golf like his brother.

"Obviously wasn't as good as his brother, but he enjoyed. He loved the game. Barry was always on the gold course if he wasn't working or if he wasn't with his family and kids," said Joiner.

The cause of the crash is being investigated by the NTSB and the FAA.