FLAGSTAFF, AZ (CBS5) -
A pair of Northern Arizona University students who went missing Sunday on the Paria Plateau were found safe about 24 hours later, authorities said.
National Park Service officials at Glen Canyon received the initial report of the missing students Monday morning. They called the Coconino County Sheriff's Office at about 7:45 a.m. about an overdue Northern Arizona University student conducting an air sampling study with her roommate on the plateau near Houserock Valley.
The two female students had left Flagstaff for the plateau Sunday morning with intentions of returning that evening, deputies said. While traveling on the plateau in the deep sand, their vehicle became disabled in an area where cell phone coverage was not available, sheriff's authorities said.
Deputies from the Coconino County Sheriff's Office at the Page and Fredonia substations, along with a Bureau of Land Management ranger, rushed to the Paria Plateau.
Coconino County Sheriff's search and rescue personnel retrieved location information from maps and coordinates thanks to some help from Northern Arizona University staff. The National Park Service aided in the search of these areas with a fixed wing aircraft and located the truck the students had been driving at 10:30 a.m.
Ground search teams found the two students safe almost 12 miles away from their vehicle near Pine Tree Pocket at approximately 10:45 a.m.
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