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Show Two Lives Claimed in Single Engine Airplane Crash Near Lund Saturday All-night Search Conducted in Three Counties A routine air excursion to control con-trol predatory coyotes in the West Desert area of southern Utah ended end-ed in tragedy for a Tooele Pilot and a government trapper from Delta Saturday afternoon, Jan. 28. Bodies of the two men, identified identi-fied as Darwin Calton, 33 of Tooele and Austin Bevan Johnson, John-son, 47, of Delta were taken from a small aircraft that had crashed crash-ed Just four miles southeast of the Iron County community of Lund. The fate of the plane and its two occupants was not known until un-til the culmination of an extensive exten-sive three county all night search that ended Sunday morning when the pair left on a flight to shoot coyotes at the request of ranchers in the area. Piloting the single engine aircraft air-craft was Calton and acting as gunner on the mission was Johnson. Last person to see the two men alive was a Cedar City rancher Nelson Bulloch and it was Mr. Bulloch who alerted the Iron County Sherriffs office late Saturday Sat-urday afternoon to begin the all-night all-night search for the accident victims. Landed Preriouily 1 The small plane had put down on a highway near Lund and the pilot had asked Mr. Bulloch to look for coyote tracks on the ground while the Mr. Calton and Mr. Johnson circled above. They had Indicated that they had shot two coyotes enroute from Delta to the Lund area. Prior to taking off following the talk with Mr. Bulloch they indicated that they had fuel to continue their search for coyotes for approximately another 90 minutes. Time was estimaied at 2:30 p.m. When the plane failed to reappear re-appear Mr. Bulloch came to Cedar Ce-dar City ior neip. iron county Sheriffs office parties were organized or-ganized In Iron, Beaver and Millard Mil-lard Counties. Participating In the search from Iron County were members of the Sherriffs Office, Otto Fife and Dallen Williams and 10 farmers and ranchers; a search group under the direction of the Beaver County, sherriffs office and 14 members of the Millard Jeep Posse. Sighted First from Air The plane was first located from the air by Leo R. Burras-ton, Burras-ton, Delta, manager of the Del Aero Flying Service, owner of the plane. He dropped a note to the jeep posse who had searched all. night covering the desert area from Millard county south and the Jeep posse discovered the two men in the plane, apparently apparent-ly dead since the crash. Upon the arrival of the sher-riff sher-riff department it was necessary to attach a chain to a jeep to pry open the door to release the bodies from the wreckage after prying off the wing which had folded over the fusalege of the plane. An Investigation of the accident acci-dent was conducted Sunday afternoon af-ternoon led by Harlon W. Bemet, State Aeronautics director, who flew to Cedar City. Investigation Indicated that the plane had apparently stalled out at an altitude so close to the ground that the pilot was unable to recover his aircraft before (Continued on Page Ten) I PLANE CRASH CLAIMS TWO LIVES (Continued from Front Page) crashing into the virtually flat desert ground. The plane hit the ground at an almost direct angle not moving mov-ing over 10 feet from the point of the original impact and one wheel had been driven up into the wing with the force of the impact It was further indicated that the pilot still had power at the time of the crash owing to the fact that the sand at the point of tie crash indicated that the propeller was still wlndmilllng. One of the early arrivals on I me scene Sunday moiling was Goylin Calton of Tooele, brother , of the pilot who was killed in the crash. After the bodies were dislodged dislodg-ed from the plane they were brought to Cedar City by Jensen Mortuary and later taken to Delta Del-ta and Tooele, respectively where services will be conducted. Mr. Johnson is survived by his widow, two sons and two daughters. daugh-ters. Mr. Calton is urivived by his widow and two daughters. |
