PROVO — A Utah Valley University student died Wednesday when the single-engine airplane he was piloting crashed near Provo Municipal Airport.
Benjamin Hill, 30, was on his way from Spanish Fork-Springville Airport and reported engine trouble about three miles from the Provo runway, according to Provo Fire Battalion Chief Roger Gourley. The plane crashed at 4:10 p.m. about 500 feet short of the runway on the dike road that circles a landfill by the airport, Gourley said.
Hill, a student in UVU's aviation science administrative program, was also a certified flight instructor for the school. The Springville man leaves behind a wife and two children.
And besides his love of flying, co-workers said Hill's family was his life.
"He loved to fly and he loved his family," said Andrew Loeffler, one of the chief flight instructors at UVU who has known Hill for five years. "At work he was meticulous about aviation. At home he was a teddy bear."
Hill started working at the Spanish Fork Airport with Loeffler before switching over to UVU to receive his flight instructor certification two years ago.
"I got him hired up there after I got hired on," Loeffler said. "He was an excellent, excellent pilot. He was always on top of everything."
Co-worker Chris Williamson said he saw Hill most days and they would talk about their children. "He would often talk about his family," Williamson said.
Hill would walk around talking to students and co-workers, always making time for someone who "needed him," co-workers said.
"If you had a question, he would know the answer to it," Williamson said.
"The aviation community is a very close-knit group, and this tragic accident has sent shock waves, not only throughout the program, but throughout the entire university," Ernie Carey, dean of the UVU College of Technology and Computing, said in a press release. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to Ben's wife and family."
Hill was the only person in the Cessna 210 Centurion, Gourley said.
UVU officials said Hill was not flying a school aircraft or in a UVU capacity at the time. The cause of the accident is under investigation.
e-mail: lgroves@desnews.com. Contributing: Paul Koepp