A single engine plane went down near a small airport outside of Telluride, Colorado on Sunday, and the three people on board were killed.

All three people on the plane were pilots, known as Sherry Anderson, 57, and Sherman Anderson, 64, of Phoenix, and Eric Durban, 48, of Mesa, Ariz., the San Miguel County sheriff’s office said in a statement Monday.

Sherry and Sherman Anderson were both commercial pilots, and Durban was a former military pilot, all very experienced pilots, according to the sheriff’s office.

The private plane was a Beechcraft Bonanza, which took off from Telluride Airport at 11:20 a.m. on Sunday headed toward Cortez, CO, only about 75 miles away, San Miguel County Sheriff Bill Masters said in the statement.

The last communication with the pilot was from the Telluride runway during takeoff, Masters said.

A six-hour search by deputies and the Civil Air Patrol found the plane on a cliff band just a mile west of the airport, where the bodies were recovered.

The Andersons have a daughter, and Durban is survived by his wife and two children.

Photo of plane crash near Telluride pic.twitter.com/MRxci948FK

— Sheriff Bill Masters (@sheriffmasters) February 17, 2014

A photo of the wreckage tweeted by Masters on Monday shows the charred remnants of the plane with the wings largely intact. Deputies had previously confirmed there were no survivors.

“This is certainly not the outcome we were hoping for. It’s just a terrible, terrible tragedy,” Masters said.

The reason they crashed is unknown, said Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokesman, Ian Gregor.

The weather conditions weren’t thought to be a cause, as they were not extreme, just some light snow with visibility of around one mile, with some light winds.

The FAA will be investigating the incident to discover the cause of the crash.

Image via Twitter