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MENDON, Cache County — An instructor and student with Utah State University's aviation program who died after crashing in a Cessna 152 last month were spin training at the time, according to a preliminary report from federal investigators.
The plane crashed about 9 a.m. on June 24 in the area of 2684 S. state Route 23, in the southwest part of the county near Mendon. Witnesses helped law enforcement and other first responders find the Cessna 152.
The USU aviation plane had two occupants, flight instructor Blake Shumway, 24, and aviation student Michael Carpenter, 25.
The National Transportation Safety Board report says the plane departed from Logan-Cache Airport and traveled to the aviation practice area just over 10 miles southwest of the airport. The plane flew in the area for about 30 minutes before the accident, according to the report.
"Surveillance video footage of the accident sequence was located and showed the airplane in a fully developed spin prior to impacting terrain," investigators said.
The airplane hit the ground in a nose-down attitude, the report states, with the propeller hub and blades still attached but the propeller flange separated. The nose landing gear was also collapsed and folded underneath the cabin seats, investigators said.
A potential cause of the crash has not yet been released.
The accident marked the third fatal crash to affect the USU Aviation Technology program in recent years.
- Last August, three people were killed in a small plane crash on Sessions Mountain in Davis County. One of the passengers, Kallie Edwards Peterson, 24, was a flight instructor at USU.
- In 2016, USU aviation student Frank Marino De Leon Compres, 21, crashed while flying over an area of hilly farmland between Hyrum and Paradise and was killed.
