Updated

Authorities say search crews have found the burned wreckage of a small plane that was reported missing in the mountains north of Phoenix and all three people aboard are dead.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor says crews located the wreckage Saturday morning in a remote mountainous area about 19 miles northeast of Deer Valley Airport.

The names, ages and hometowns of the victims have not been released.

The single-engine Piper Cherokee was operated by a Phoenix-area flight school. It departed Deer Valley Airport at 7:30 p.m. Friday en route to a practice area about 30 miles away to the northeast. When the plane didn't return an hour later, it was reported missing.