OCR Text |
Show Three St. George Men Die In Cedar Mountain Tragedy All of southern Utah was shocked Monday over the tragic tra-gic loss of three St. George men in a small single engine aircraft downed late Sunday afternoon while participating in a Civil Air Patrol Search for another missing aircraft from New Mexico. Mex-ico. Killed in the apparent attempted attempt-ed emergency landing just four miles directly north of Aspen-Mirror Aspen-Mirror Lake in Garfield County were Dr. ElMyrrh Cox, 40, a dentist den-tist and pilot of the craft; James K. Miles, 47, and James L. Mid-dleton. Mid-dleton. Sr., 46, observers. Middleton is a former resident of Cedar City. The light plane was spotted by air early Monday morning and ground parties consisting of law enforcement officers of Iron County, and ( larfield County, members of the Iron County Jeep Patrol and a party from St. George, were directed by air to the plane. All but the framework of the light plane had been burned and tlie three men had not escaped the blaze, although it appeared that the landing otherwise would have been relatively safe. It was determined that the fuel tank had been ripped open on Impact with the ground and the plane had virtually exploded in- to flames. No other major dam-' dam-' age could be determined to the light craft. The plane came down In a relatively rel-atively clear area, but inspection inspec-tion of the path of the plane once on the ground indicated the fire had erupted virtually when the plane hit the ground, one observer ob-server commented. Dr. Cox, pilot of the plane was found partially out of the craft on the pilots side. The other two men were still in the seats of the aircraft. Funeral services will be conducted con-ducted today. Thursday, in St. George for Middleton. His obit-urary obit-urary appears elsewhere in this Residents of the entire area were shocked by the loss of the three St. George men and the entire en-tire community of St. George has been in a state of shock since the downed plane was discovered dis-covered Monday. Utah Aeronautical director Marlon W. Bement, flew to Cedar Ce-dar City with officals of the Civil Aeronautics board and Federal Aviation Agency to investigate the Incident. The St. George trio were part of a CAP force of approximately 25 planes looking for a plane piloted by J. F. Jeansonne of Hobbs, N. M., which disappeared Friday on a flight from Salt Lake City to Farmlngton, N. M. His wife and 16-year-old daughter Suzanne, were aboard. Search for that aircraft has currently been disconti'.iued although al-though not forgoitcn, Bement stated. New Mexico CAP authorities author-ities had discontinued the search late Sunday. |