SALT LAKE CITY—Federal investigators have begun combing through the wreckage of a plane that crashed in heavy fog in Utah’s Oquirrh mountains, killing three crew members of a private Montana-based firefighting company.
Tooele County Sheriff Frank Park says investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration were on the scene Sunday morning.
The plane crashed Saturday en route from Missoula, Mont., to Alamogordo, N. M.
Crew members for Missoula-based Neptune Aviation were on their way to southern New Mexico to help fight a 19,000-acre wildfire.
The sheriff identified the pilot as Tom Risk, 66, of Littleton, Colo., and crew members as Mike Flynn, 59, of Alamogordo, N. M., and Brian Buss, 32, of Alberton, Mont.
Dan Martin, a neighbor of Risk and his wife, described Risk as a caring individual.
“He worked around the house a lot when he was home. Whenever we had a big snow storm, he would be the first guy out with his snowblower, and not only do his own driveway but a couple of the neighbors’,” Martin told The Denver Post.
