EAGLE COUNTY, Colo. -- A Utah pilot has been identified as the victim of a single-engine plane that crashed in the mountains halfway between Vail and and Aspen, but the pilot's ID was disputed Thursday.

Although the Colorado Civil Air Patrol identified the pilot as Michael Loveless, 51, of Price, Utah, the Eagle County Sheriff's Office said Thursday that the pilot's name had not been released and the name "associated with the plane is not the current owner and was not the pilot involved in the crash."

Spencer Loveless, the son of Michael Lovelsss, confirmed for the Sun Advocate newspaper in Carbon County, Utah that the plane’s operator was his father. The newspaper has a front page story, with photo, on the death of Michael Loveless. His wife, Colleen also told The Associated Press that Michael Loveless was her husband and was killed in the crash.

Civil Air Patrol spokeswoman 2nd Lt. Tricia Sargent said crews worked through the night Tuesday and teams that included staff from area sheriff's departments searched by ground in steep, snowy terrain.

Eagle County sheriff's spokeswoman Shannon Cordingly said that recovery crews have been unable to reach the wreckage, but Major Mark Young with the Civil Air Patrol said the body was recovered at 11 a.m. Wednesday.

When a National Guard helicopter crew spotted the plane Wednesday, they called crash "unsurvivable."

According to the Eagle County Sheriff's Office, the Cessna 182 was last spotted by radar in the area of Lake Josephine and Carter Lake in the Holy Cross Wilderness at approximately 3:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The plane took off 45 minutes earlier from the Rocky Mountain Regional Airport in Broomfield, Colo. It was headed to Utah by way of Aspen.

A Civil Air Patrol plane had been searching for the missing aircraft, aided by the National Guard helicopter out of the Eagle County Airport.

The plane had recently been sold.