DENVER -- A University of Colorado student and his co-worker have found an airplane propeller that fell off a plane in Aspen last year, according to the Aspen Times newspaper.

Joey Stokes and Heather Hall found the propeller above Ruedi Reservoir, east of Basalt, Colo.

Pilot Barry Cox lost the propeller during an in-flight emergency last December. Cox offered a $1,000 reward for the propeller on a Web site called, where's my prop.com.

When no one found the propeller, Cox raised the reward to $3,000, then $5,000.

Cox said he needed the propeller as part of an ongoing National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation.

The in-flight emergency forced Cox to glide some 8 miles using his side windows. When he landed at the Aspen airport, the plane's engine was dead and there was oil all over his windshield.

Cox didn't know the propeller was gone until he landed.