P2V Neptune crashes in Tooele killing 3
10:46 PM in News by Aviation Utah
From the Salt Lake Tribune
http://www.sltrib.com/News/ci_12227046
Three killed in Tooele County plane crash
The Oquirrhs: Fog and clouds hindered search efforts
Updated: 04/25/2009 07:10:49 PM MDT
Stockton » There was a boom and a rumble that shook houses. When the clouds lifted hours later, everyone saw the damage.
A firefighting airplane from Montana crashed Saturday in the Oquirrh Mountains above Stockton. The crash killed Tom Risk, 66, of Littleton, Colo.; Mike Flynn, 59 of Alamogordo, N.M.; and 32-year-old Brian Buss of Alberton, Mont.
The three were crew members for Neptune Aviation, of Missoula, Mont., and were bound for southern New Mexico to help fight a 19,000-acre wildfire, said Dan Ware, a spokesman for the New Mexico Forestry Division.
The plane, a twin propeller P2V Neptune, was flying from Missoula to Alamogordo when it failed to clear a mountain
Three people were confirmed to have died in the crash of a small airplane Saturday in Tooele County. (Chris Detrick/The Salt Lake Tribune)
pass, said Tooele County Sheriff Frank Park.
The Neptune was developed during the Korean war and is commonly used to fight wildfires, Park said. It had been equipped for dropping fire retardant, he said.
Visibility was only 100 feet when the plane failed to clear Stockton Pass, he said. It missed the pass by an eighth of a mile and slammed into a mountain instead, but should have been flying much higher, he said.
The plane was being tracked by the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, which lost track of it before the pilot could report any trouble or issue a distress signal, the sheriff said.
“The fire aviation community lost good people and a valuable resource today and they will be missed,” said
Jennifer Myslivy, a New Mexico-based fire mitigation and education specialist for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
No one reported seeing the crash, though it was heard.
“We heard a boom and the house shook,” said Sandy Sanders.
“It sounded like an explosion,” said Millie Corey, Sanders’ mother. They live together on Stockton’s main drag.
Park said one person described the sound as “two semis crashing head-on.”
Tooele County search and rescue began trying to find the plane Saturday morning, but were initially hampered by the weather.
“Clouds were completely encompassing the area,” Park said. “You couldn’t see anything.”
About 1 p.m., fog and clouds lifted. A searcher on one of the Oquirrh Mountain peaks above Stockton almost walked upon the crash, Park said.
As the clouds continued to lift, the wreckage became more visible to onlookers along State Road 36. It stretched down almost all of one side of the peak. The fuselage could be seen at the top of the peak. Wheels and pieces of wings were scattered down the side.
By afternoon, residents with binoculars and telescopes stood along the road looking at the crash and watching the recovery effort.
Investigators for the Federal Aviation Administration were at the crash site Saturday, and officials for the National Traffic Safety Board planned to arrive Sunday, Park said.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.