NEWCOMB - Police found two bodies Tuesday in the wreckage of a small plane that is believed to have crashed Sunday evening on Santanoni Peak.

Police have tentatively identified the bodies as two Malone-area men.

Troopers in Ray Brook were contacted around 6 p.m. Monday and were told that Daniel R. Wills, 48, of North Bangor, and Ronald E. Rouselle, 66, of Malone, had left the Saratoga County Airport around 4:25 p.m. Sunday in a Piper Cherokee 140 single-engine plane and had not arrived at their planned destination, the Malone-Dufort Airport.

"The men never showed up and had not contacted anyone, which family and friends found abnormal, and vehicles belonging to the men were located in the airport parking lot in Malone," police said in a news release.

State police worked with the Federal Aviation Administration and determined that the plane was last reported at 4,200 feet in elevation and headed toward terrain at 4,600 feet in elevation near the Tahawus mining area in a remote part of the southern High Peaks Wilderness. A search for the missing aircraft was launched using state police and U.S. Customs and Border Protection helicopters.

The wreckage of what police believed to be the Piper Cherokee was located around 8 a.m. Tuesday.

Lt. Scott Heggelke of the state police barracks in Ray Brook told The Associated Press that the bodies were removed from the mountain by helicopter and taken to the Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake for autopsies and positive identification.

Malone-Dufort Airport Manager Mark Besio told the Enterprise Tuesday that the plane is owned by Wills, who is a flight instructor and is believed to be the pilot for the flight.

"Apparently, there was no radio contact whatsoever that he was in any kind of trouble," Besio said.

Besio said the plane was in "excellent running condition" and that Wills was very familiar with flying in the area.

"Danny's flew that route so many times that there would be no chance of him being too low because he knows that like the back of his hands," Besio said. "He's done that flight a lot, as far as I know."

Besio said Wills has been flying out of the Malone airport for the 18 years he's worked there and was "well liked."

"He's basically the driving force of aviation in this entire area," said Besio said. "I wouldn't even want to know how many students he's taught."

State police said an investigation into the cause and circumstances surrounding the crash is ongoing. The FAA, the NTSB and forest rangers are assisting state police in the investigation.