ALBUQUERQUE — A twin-engine plane carrying cocaine was destroyed when it crashed into a New Mexico lake, authorities said Thursday as they continued working with few clues into what caused the accident and how many people were aboard.

A preliminary report posted on the Federal Aviation Administration's website Wednesday lists the crash as an accident and says the airplane was destroyed, but the only other information in the short posting was the note: "Aircraft crashed under unknown circumstances into a lake. Unknown person/s on board."

Authorities have said only fragments of human remains have been recovered.

State police spokesman Lt. Eric Garcia has said officials have "strong leads" about who was on the plane, but he said he did not know when authorities would release a name or names.

"We know at least one person was on board. That's about the extent of it," said FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford.

As far as the investigation, "There's a limited amount you can do from our standpoint without having the airplane," he said Thursday.

Divers also have recovered only a small percentage of the craft from Heron Lake, where it crashed Sunday. Lunsford described the pieces as "badly fragmented." Garcia has said the largest piece found was about the size of a piece of paper.

The plane was based in Prescott, Ariz., and registered to an unidentified man in Caldwell, Idaho.

State police divers ended their search in the cold, murky lake Tuesday. Garcia said uniformed officers patrolling the area Wednesday found nothing new.

The FAA identified the plane in a preliminary report posted on its website as a Cessna 320.

Authorities zeroed in on Prescott, about 100 miles north of Phoenix, after tracing back a radar blip they believe belonged to the plane. Documentation and other items recovered will help verify the identification, Lunsford said.

Authorities recovered 23 bundles of cocaine in packages about the size of a tissue box. Garcia described the drug as pure.

Garcia has repeatedly refused to comment on the investigation or to speculate on the purpose of the flight, saying authorities would assume only "that a plane crashed and that there was narcotics aboard it."



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