Three people survived a plane crash south of Silt Sunday afternoon but had to be removed from the wreckage and airlifted from the scene once search and rescue personnel reached the remote location.

According to a press release, the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office was notified at approximately 2:40 p.m. of a downed aircraft with three occupants on board near the Chair Bar Road, west of Dry Hollow Road.

Sheriff’s spokesman Walt Stowe said a female occupant of the small plane was able to get free of the wreckage and call on her cell phone for help.

Garfield County Search and Rescue personnel were notified and on scene by 3:50 p.m., according to the release.

“Chief (Mike) Kite of the Silt Police Department was one of the first on scene along with several officers from the Silt PD,” according to the release. “The chief was able to call out the specific location of the crash.”

As of 5 p.m., all three of the survivors had been removed from the site, Stowe said.

Three patients were flown from the scene by CareFlight of the Rockies and Classic Air Medical to area hospitals. Severity of injuries was unknown Sunday night, Colorado River Fire Rescue said in a Facebook post.

“Due to being remote and in difficult terrain crews hiked in with equipment to check on patients and assess the damage,” CRFR said in the post.

Responding agencies include the Silt Police Department, Colorado River Fire Rescue, Garfield County Search and Rescue and the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office, along with air support provided by three separate entities in the form of helicopters on the ground near the wreckage, the release stated.

This is a developing story.