LAS VEGAS -- Three people are believed to have died Wednesday in a plane crash in Arizona about 80 miles east of Las Vegas, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said.

The people were in a four-seat, single-engine plane that crashed at 12:11 p.m. after its pilot reported icing on the plane's wings at an altitude of about 13,000 feet, said FAA spokesman Ian Gregor.

Search crews from the Mohave County sheriff's department were in a helicopter when they spotted the wreckage in rugged terrain about 15 miles northeast of Pierce Ferry Airport at about 1:50 p.m., Gregor said.

"The plane was destroyed," he said. "Searchers reported that they saw three bodies and it appeared as if all three were fatalities."

Officials have yet to release the names of those aboard, but did identify the plane as a Cirrus SR22 made in 2005. It was on its way to Phoenix from the San Francisco Bay area, said Gregor.

"The pilot was trying to detour around some bad weather but apparently got caught up in it," he said.

Shortly after the pilot declared an emergency, air traffic controllers in the Los Angeles Center in Palmdale, Calif., lost radio contact.

The plane is designed to deploy a parachute in an emergency, but it was unclear whether it deployed. The plane was owned by a New Orleans-based company.