Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
HURRICANE — No injuries were reported after the small plane two people were in flipped over while attempting to land on a snow-packed private airstrip in southern Utah Friday, federal aviation officials said.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer said the plane involved was a Piper PA-12.
Washington County dispatch officials first received a report of some sort of emergency shortly after noon, Washington County Sheriff's Sgt. Darrell Cashin said. He added dispatch got the alert from a device and only knew the alert was coming from a location in northeast Washington County near the Zion National Park boundaries, not what the emergency was.
Officials got ahold of someone associated with the device and learned that a plane carrying two people had left Sky Ranch Air Park in Hurricane, but hadn't been heard from since. Washington County officials then reached out to Iron County Sheriff's officials, which contacted Southern Utah University's aviation program for assistance.
A helicopter from the university was dispatched, but another pilot reported the crash before the helicopter reached the scene.
"He said there was a plane that was inverted on this small airfield up there and he could see movement," Cashin said. "That was probably 7 minutes prior to the helicopter arriving."
The helicopter landed at the scene and made contact with the pilot and the passenger, who said they were OK. The crew picked up the two plane occupants and flew them back to Sky Ranch Air Park where a medical checked on and released them.
Cashin said he wasn't sure when the plane crashed and didn't know if the FAA would investigate the crash.
Contributing: Marc Weaver, KSL TV
