A homemade bi-plane apparently lost power and spiraled nose-first into the Lark sand dunes Sunday night, killing the 68-year-old pilot.
Killed was Robert P. Williams, West Valley City.Salt Lake County Sheriff's Lt. Roger Taylor said the crash was reported at 7:37 p.m. by Herriman residents who saw the plane plummet from an altitude of about 500 feet.
Fire department and search and rescue personnel searched the area for about 15 minutes before spotting the wreckage two miles inside the Lark sand dunes at 11900 South on U-111.
Larry and Kathleen Turner, Herriman, said they were sitting on their back deck when they saw the distressed plane. They both watched in horror as the small aircraft "just spun straight down."
There was no explosion or smoke afterward, "just a thud," said Kathleen Turner, who was clearly upset by the incident. "It was horrible," she said.
Larry Turner said the plane seemed to experience problems as it banked into a turn. "At about 500 feet it started spinning and didn't come out of it," he said. "About seven or eight seconds later, it hit the ground."
Taylor said the pilot was alone in the airplane and apparently died on impact. "There was no indication of any fire," he said.
A preliminary investigation indicated that the airplane had taken off from Salt Lake Airport No. 2 in West Jordan earlier in the evening. Taylor said the pilot's flight plan had not been determined.
The sky was overcast in the area, but there was no indication that weather was a factor in the crash, Taylor said. Federal Aviation Administration investigators were sent to the scene Monday morning.
The sand dunes are located near the old Kennecott mining town of Lark, which has since been absorbed into Kennecott's mining operations.