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Team coverage Today the Utah County Sheriff's Office released the names of the two men killed in a plane crash near Cedar Fort on Tuesday, but it could still be a few days, even weeks, before federal investigators know what caused the small plane to crash.
The pilot, 62-year-old David Silfvast, from Salt Lake, and his passenger, 71-year-old David Edgerly, from Florida, were the only people inside the plane when it crashed.
The plane was a home-built airplane, classified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as an experimental aircraft; and it's not the first time the pilot crashed.
Several people called emergency dispatchers within minutes of the plane crash Tuesday just after 11 a.m. Some had seen the crash, other described seeing smoke.
When Bill Letcher, president of the Utah Experimental Aircraft Association, found out about the crash and heard Silfvast, was someone from his club, he didn't know what to think. "I don't really know the guy that went down, but any time someone does that, it affects all of us," he said.
Utah's Experimental Aircraft Association is a club for people who enjoy building their own airplanes from kits. "These aren't toys. These are real airplanes," Letcher said.
Even with Tuesday's crash, Letcher said the dangers for these airplanes aren't any higher than factory-made, single-engine planes. FAA numbers support his claim.
"There are people who take so much pride in their workmanship that the aircraft is absolutely perfect. It's flawless," he said.
Silfvast wasn't some rookie pilot, either. He's been flying for years. In fact, back in 1997, KSL did a story on him after he walked away from another plane crash just south of Airport No. 2. Back then he told us, "I set down a little hard, so the airplane bounced, and it flipped over on me." He walked away from that wreck without a scratch.
Silfvast's nephew, Tom Geertsen, said Silfvast had decades of experience. He said, "[Silfvast was] one of the most gentle, sweetest people on this earth. And I've, I'm just blown away about what happened."
Now, Letcher is wondering what happened this time. "I have no idea what happened here. The FAA will examine that," he said.
The FAA is looking into the crash, along with the National Transportation Safety Board.
There have now been 37 plane accidents in Utah this year; seven of them have been fatal. But six of the deadly crashes have come since the middle of July, killing 21.
The worst was on Aug. 22 when 10 people died in Moab while returning from a medical mission. Two Blanding City council members and a former member also died in Monticello as they were scouting elk. Two others were killed on the shore of Bear Lake near Garden City.
E-mail: tcallan@ksl.com
E-mail: cwall@ksl.com
E-mail: acabrero@ksl.com
