ROY — Ogden attorney Adam Hensley thought there was something odd about the twin-engine Cessna the moment he saw it traveling low and slow above the northbound lanes of I-15 Wednesday.
“I was driving north on I-15 when I first noticed the plane, just really about the Sunset area, just after Clearfield,” he said of the small red and white plane that crashed in a Roy neighborhood at 3:11 p.m. Wednesday, killing pilot David Goode, 64.
Goode was founder and president of Goode Ski Technologies, which is based in Ogden.
Hensley said he suspected something was wrong with Goode’s plane as soon as he noticed it.
“It was following the path of the interstate,” Hensley said. “You see planes in that area that cross over the interstate near there, but they don’t follow the interstate too much. I could tell immediately, right when I noticed it, that there was a problem.”
The first sign of trouble, he said, was that the plane was traveling slower than his car.
“It didn’t look like he had any speed or power,” Hensley said. “I followed it, trying to stay behind it because I thought, ‘He’s going to try and land this on the interstate.’ It was 3:00 and traffic wasn’t very crowded, so I thought, ‘He’s looking to land this thing here.’”
Hensley said the plane was flying low, about 200 or 300 feet in the air, something he noticed because he flies drones at 400 feet.
“It was rocking and tipping and turning the wrong way, and then all of a sudden he made a decision to make a sharp left turn,” Hensley said of the plane veering to the west. “It nose-dived and went down. He just didn’t have the speed, and it was a sharp, aggressive turn.”
After the turn, Hensley lost sight of the plane, which was traveling from Bountiful to the Ogden-Hinckley Airport, according to Roy police. Seconds later, he saw “a big burst of fire and black smoke immediately after that.”
Police said the plane crashed, killing the lone occupant, about the same time it was scheduled to arrive in Ogden.
“(The pilot) left the Bountiful airport at 3:00 and was scheduled to land in Ogden about 3:11, which is also the time the plane was observed crashing into the parking lot here,” said Roy Police Sgt. Matthew Gwynn.
“According to witnesses, the plane banked left, landing gear was down, the wing hit the top of one of these town homes and the plane came down into the parking lot.”
The plane took out a fence and trees as it slid to a stop near a town home across the street from the one clipped by the plane’s wing and burst into flames at 1805 W. 5050 South.
No one was home in the town house that was hit by the wing, which damaged the roof of the building. The plane slid to a stop near another home and the heat from the fire melted the siding of that home.
“There were no injuries on the ground,” Gwynn said.
“It is with a heavy heart that Goode Skis announces the passing of its founder and president, David Goode,” a statement posted on Goode.com said. “Through his numerous technological advancements in both water skiing and snow skiing, and financial support of countless events and athletes in both sports, Dave touched the lives of thousands of people by helping them, and the sports they love, push the limits of performance.”
Goode, who moved his company from Michigan to Ogden in 2005 because of the access to world-class ski terrain, died “taking part in one of his many passions, piloting his airplane,” the statement said of the accomplished water and snow skier, who pioneered the use of carbon fiber in backcountry ski equipment.
Kayla Davis, a nurse who lives near the crash site, ran to help Wednesday after seeing the plane go down. As she and several others neared the crash site, she said the plane exploded, showering the neighborhood with fragments from the aircraft.
“I felt a huge (plume of heat),” she said, “and debris flying around me. I got very lucky that none hit me because it was flying all around. If you look behind me, there are airplane parts all over the tops of the houses. We’re very lucky that me and the people by us didn’t get hit.”
Goode was the only passenger onboard the Cessna. Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were expected to visit the site Wednesday evening.
Gwynn asked residents of the town home community to be patient as officials investigate the cause of the crash and make sure any debris or hazardous waste was removed from the neighborhood.
“We’re working with the Department of Health, we’re working with the NTSB, we’re working with fire officials to make sure the scene is safe for any of the homeowners or residents that come into the area,” Gwynn said.
Goode is survived by his wife Dawn; parents Paul and Mimi; children Michael Goode, Lisa Goode McHugh (John), Whitney Hebard Felkl (Hans), Gregory Hebard (Adrianna), and granddaughters Maple Julia McHugh and Sunny Elizabeth Hebard.
There have been a number of plane crashes in the area.
In November, a Piper single-engine aircraft hit a billboard along I-15 and crashed about a half-mile southwest of Ogden-Hinckley Airport shortly after taking off. Two people on board were critically injured. The tail number on the plane is the same as a plane that was forced to make an emergency landing on I-15 near Ogden in May 2018.
In 2017, A Beech A36 Bonanza crashed onto I-15 in Riverdale shortly after taking off from the Ogden-Hinckley Airport, killing two couples on board.
Contributing: Pat Reavy, Alex Cabrero