Image supplied, National Transportation Safety Board

BOUNTIFUL — A preliminary federal report reconstructs the final moments of an Aug. 15 plane flight that ended with a crash in a wooded canyon east of Bountiful, killing the pilot and a couple celebrating their first anniversary.

The National Transportation Safety Board’s initial review — a final report will be issued later — made no conclusions on the cause of the Cessna 182’s crash, but addressed weather conditions, the course of the flight, then the final seconds of flight and the crash through a tree and into the ground.

Three Northern Utah residents died in the crash: J. Parker Christensen, 28, of Ogden, and passengers Tyson Peterson and Kallie Edwards Peterson, both 24 and of Logan. The undated NTSB document said family members reported that Christensen recently became a certified flight instructor and Kallie Peterson had been one of his instructors.

The six-minute flight began at 6:41 p.m. from Bountiful’s Skypark Airport and the plane flew northeast toward the foothills of the Sessions Mountains. For the next three minutes, the plane moved at a speed of 90 knots, climbing at 700 feet per minute. Tracking data came from the plane’s ADS-B, or automatic dependent surveillance broadcast, device.

At about 4.5 miles from the airport, the plane entered a canyon and, for about a minute, it remained level with the tops of the canyon walls as the climb continued. According to the report, the height of the canyon walls continued to increase as the plane continued at the same climb rate. By 6:46:28 p.m., the aircraft was at 7,300 feet above sea level and 800 feet below the north and south canyon rims.

Image supplied, National Transportation Safety Board

The plane then entered a mile-wide bowl at the end of the canyon. During the next eight seconds, it slowed to 64 knots and turned left, to the north. The last tracking data was received at 6:46:36.

Searchers found the wreckage at 7,225 feet elevation, about 150 feet below and 350 feet beyond the final data point, the report said. The craft came to rest facing downhill on a 50-degree, southwest-facing slope, about 1,100 feet below the summit of the canyon walls.

Investigators examined the debris field of 30 by 30 feet at the base of a 70-foot-tall pine tree. They measured a near-vertical slash mark through the upper limbs of the tree. The cabin and both wings were consumed by fire, the report said.

NTSB said weather data showed that visibility was estimated at 5 miles in the area at the time of the crash and winds were at 7-12 mph. The information “did not indicate any downdrafts or updrafts” below 11,000 feet in the crash area, the report said.

Family members said Christensen had served as a Navy rescue diver before getting into piloting after his time in the service. Tyson Peterson was a recent Utah State University graduate who was preparing to study dentistry. Kallie Peterson had an aviation technology degree from Utah State and had just been hired by SkyWest Airlines to join her pilot father there.

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