Police now call the plane crash on the foothills east of Provo last week a suicide.
Federal transportation and aviation officials completed their onsite investigation. Provo Police Capt. George Pierpont said preliminary results indicate the plane was traveling at full speed when it hit the mountainside south of Slate Canyon Tuesday about 3:10 p.m.Police believe the single-engine Cessna 152 was piloted by Adam Oliphant, 20, Orem. However, the state medical examiner's office has yet to positively identify the badly burned body.
"We're still waiting for some dental records," Pierpont said.
Oliphant rented the plane shortly before 3 p.m. Tuesday from Valley Hi Aviation. About a half-hour earlier he was convicted by a 4th District jury of a third-degree felony charge of operating a pyramid scheme. In 1994 he was convicted of theft and a Class A misdemeanor count of operating a pyramid scheme. He was on probation and likely was facing a prison term.
Witnesses said the plane was only a few hundred feet in the air and hit the mountain nose first without any attempt to steer away.