9 Bodies Recovered From Site of Plane Crash in Utah

TOOELE, Utah — Authorities in helicopters and boats recovered the bodies of the pilot and eight passengers Monday in a plane that crashed into the Great Salt Lake while returning from a skydiving trip.

Investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board began their investigation Monday. They offered no preliminary assessment of what went awry.

The passengers, members of a group called Skydive Salt Lake, had spent the weekend jumping during the day and camping in sleeping bags at the Mesquite, Nev., Municipal Airport at night, airport manager Ray Wilson said. He said they took off for Tooele on Sunday, about two hours before the 5:30 p.m. crash.

The twin-engine plane crashed into the lake in about five feet of water. Sheriff’s deputies suspect that everyone was killed on impact. Airport officials didn’t know the plane was missing until a relative of a passenger called hours later.

The 35-year-old Beech 65 plane was headed for Tooele County Airport, about five miles south of the lake. It crashed about a mile offshore.

Airport officials were not expecting the plane because the pilot had not registered a flight plan, so radar tape-recordings had to be checked to determine the time of the crash.

The tapes indicated that the plane was banking and that it may have spiraled into the lake less than five miles from the airport, county sheriff’s officials said. There had been no distress signal, and none of the bodies was wearing a parachute.

Duck hunters along the lake’s south shore found parachutes, clothing, the pilot’s logbook and other debris Monday morning.

“It smells like fuel out here. It’s kind of an eerie feeling,” said Tim Bryan, 31, one of the hunters.

Snow fell intermittently throughout the day Sunday, but there was no immediate indication if the weather contributed to the crash.

The dead were identified as the pilot, John T. Cashmen, 41; passengers Mike C. Hurren, 51, a co-owner of Skydive Salt Lake; his wife, Gayle Hurren, 45; Lisa Ellise, 34; Nathan B. Hall, 29; Denise Stott, 26; Charles Wilson, 31; Merriah Hutson, 25; and Jay Johnson, 24.