TOOELE — Tooele and Salt Lake County deputies searched the Great Salt Lake Monday morning for the wreckage of a twin-engine plane that crashed into the lake Sunday, killing nine members of a skydiving club.
The bodies of all nine victims, five men and four women, were recovered early Monday morning. Sheriff's officials released the names of the victims Monday morning.
Three boats were searching an area six miles west of the Great Salt Lake Marina and one mile offshore Monday for the wrecked plane. Because the bodies of the victims floated to the lake's surface, searchers believe the plane broke up after smashing into the water.
All of the victims were believed to be from Skydive Salt Lake. They took off from their base at the Tooele Valley Airport on Friday morning to practice skydiving in Mesquite, Nev.
Airport manager Craig Rydalch said he fueled the Beechcraft King twin-engine plane and watched the skydivers load their gear. He said he didn't know them very well but they were very experienced skydivers.
The group was supposed to return Sunday afternoon. About 7 p.m., Rydalch received a call from family members wondering if he had heard from the group. Monday morning, Rydalch said he received another call telling him the plane had crashed into the Great Salt Lake.
"It's really sad," Rydalch said.
Rydalch said he watched the president of the club and his wife board the plane Friday. When Rydalch arrived at work Monday morning, their truck was still in the parking lot.
The plane's pilot did not file a flight plan locally, and air traffic controllers at the Salt Lake City International Airport had no idea it was in the air, said Lt. Frank Park, Tooele County Sheriff's Department.
The airport never received any calls for help from the plane, Park said.
Gary Mayer of the FAA regional office in Seattle said small planes that do not fly in military airspace or airspace reserved by the Salt Lake International Airport are not required to file a flight plan. Flying from Mesquite to Tooele should not have been a problem.
"They can do that without talking to anybody," Mayer said.
However, all planes can jump on an emergency frequency and ask for help if needed.
"There is no indication here that they did that," Mayer said.
The first sign of trouble came Sunday night when a man waiting at the airport for his wife to return from the trip told airport officials they were an hour overdue.
The man contacted American Aviation, which manages the Tooele Valley Airport.
Deputies from the Tooele County Sheriff's Department were first notified of the missing plane about 11:30 p.m. Sunday by relatives of the skydivers. They said the plane was scheduled to leave Mesquite at 4:15 p.m. MST and arrive in Tooele at 5:15 p.m.
The group apparently flew to Mesquite to practice because the weather there was better, Park said. They were scheduled to rendezvous with another group of skydivers from Las Vegas, Rydalch said.
Ray Wilson, manager for Air West Aviation at the Mesquite Airport, said the group had flown down about two or three times a year to practice. He said this trip appeared to be business as usual.
Wilson let the group use his hanger to pack their parachutes. In return, they took him on his first jump.
Tooele investigators contacted air traffic controllers in Salt Lake City after getting the call from family members. Airport officials went over their radar records and discovered an unidentified blip on their screen that they determined was the missing plane, Park said.
It appears as though the plane had circled the Tooele Airport and was possibly making its final approach, Park said. It then just dropped off the screen, he said.
Search and rescue crews from Tooele and the Salt Lake County Sheriff's departments went to the area where radar last spotted the plane.
About 1 a.m. Monday, an Air Med helicopter spotted the first body, Park said. Over the next several hours, all nine bodies were recovered. Seven of the bodies washed up near the railroad tracks along the shore of the Great Salt Lake Marina, Park said. Two others were recovered by search members in a boat, he said.
Deputies believe all nine died on impact.
"From the looks of it, it went down pretty hard," Park said.
Investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were expected to arrive at the scene Monday.
Because the plane did not file a local flight plan and no call for help was ever received, it may be hard to figure out what happened, Mayer said.
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