MOAB, Utah (NEWSnet/AP) — A state senator from North Dakota, his wife and their two young children died when the small plane they were riding in crashed in Utah, a Senate leader said Monday.

Doug Larsen’s death was confirmed Monday in an email that Republican Senate Majority Leader David Hogue sent to his fellow senators.

The plane crashed Sunday evening shortly after taking off from Canyonlands Airfield about 15 miles north of Moab in the eastern Utah region, according to a Grand County Sheriff’s Department statement posted on Facebook.

The crash was being investigated, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a post on X, the social media website formerly called Twitter.

Moab is a tourism-centered community of about 5,300 people near Arches and Canyonlands national parks.

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