Reckless Pilot Buzzes Colorado Boats + Crashes

An incident that took place recently in Colorado could have had a much more tragic outcome involved a plane flying recklessly over a popular reservoir, buzzing boats, which led to its eventual crash.

The Incident at the Colorado Reservoir

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The incident took place on Sunday, September 11th, 2022 at Horsetooth Reservoir just outside of Fort Collins. The portion of the reservoir in which it happened was near what is known as the Maxwell Natural Area:

According to witnesses, a small plane came flying over Horsetooth Reservoir where, up until that point, numerous people were enjoying a nice day out on their boats.

However, the day soon turned dangerous when the witnesses say that the plane began flying entirely too close to the boats, buzzing them and then returning to higher altitudes.

Here we see the plane returning to the air after buzzing one of the boats on the reservoir:

At one point, the plane got so close to one of the boats that the occupants can be seen obviously distressed:

After buzzing boats several times, witnesses say that the plane eventually crashed, though none of this was caught on film.

The Aftermath of the Colorado Incident

Colorado resident Stephanie Stamos was taking senior pictures when she witnessed the incident and caught it on camera, later telling police and news outlets what she saw:

However, police say that the pilot of the plane, who was luckily able to walk away from the crash, claimed to have been running out of fuel which caused his plane to lose altitude.

However, as you can see, footage caught by Stamos as well as her first-hand witness accounts tell a different story.

[CBS Colorado via YouTube / ARRF World via YouTube]