Surveillance video gives first look at July jet crash

Surveillance video gives first look at July jet crash


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SALT LAKE CITY — Newly released surveillance video gives an interesting view of that bizarre plane crash and suicide at the St. George airport last July.

A commercial pilot, who is believed to have killed his girlfriend in Colorado Springs, tried to steal a SkyWest airplane, crashed it, and then shot himself onboard. The incident was puzzling to police when it happened, and it's still unclear what that pilot was trying to do.

Investigators do know Brian Joseph Hedglin, 40, was on the run from the law in Colorado, and a professional pilot who looked at the video with KSL News Monday said it sure did look like he was trying to take off.

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"As pilots, you see one go rogue like this — we are horrified," said Valerie Walker, a professional pilot in Utah.

As the video begins, we can see Hedglin dashing across the runway on foot, heading for a SkyWest jet.

After he's started up the plane, a complex procedure, he doesn't head out the runway. Instead, he heads toward the terminal in the parking lot. Then, Hedglin takes out a corner of the terminal building with the aircraft.

The jet ends up in the parking lot, where it damages several cars. Police believe Hedglin shot shortly after that.

Law enforcement officials in Colorado Springs believe Hedglin killed his girlfriend, 39-year-old Christina Cornejo, by stabbing her to death at his apartment three days earlier.

While these surveillance clips do not definitively answer what he was trying to do, Walker does not believe he was trying to take off.

"There was no caution in that. He looks like he was ready, willing and able to hit just anything and everything," she said.

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Jed Boal

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