      Wyoming authorities say a pilot was killed Tuesday afternoon when his single-engine plane crashed west of Casper and southeast of Alcova Reservoir.
The body was recovered Wednesday, but the man’s identity has not yet been released.
      Kiera Grogan, Public Information Officer for the Natrona County Sheriff’s Office, says the company that owned the plane contacted dispatchers in Casper about 4:45 pm to report it had lost contact with the pilot.
The company provided the coordinates of the last-known location of the aircraft in the Alcova area, and a rescue operation was immediately launched both in the air and on the ground.
GGrogan says private search planes located the downed aircraft about 7:30 PM, but because of the steep, heavily wooded, remote terrain and because of darkness, a WYoming Army National Guard helicopter with specialized equipment was brought in.
It dropped off two sheriff’s staffers as close to the crash site as safely possible and the pair hiked into the wreckage and confirmed the pilot had been killed.
More personnel and equipment was brought in to remove the body Wednesday morning and the sheriff’s office announced shortly before 5 pm that the body recovery operation was complete.
The cause of the crash is being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board. A preliminary report normally takes 2-to-4 weeks with a probable-cause finding generally a year to 18 months away.