It was a tragic ending in the case of a missing airplane last week that had taken off from the Vernal Regional Airport. On October 27th at about 6:15pm, the Emery County Sheriff’s Office received a report from Salt Lake Air Traffic Control that they had been tracking a plane that had departed from Vernal and the plane had abruptly stopped transmitting a GPS location over mountains in Emery County. Deputies responded using the coordinates given but assistance had to be called in due to the steep terrain. A DPS helicopter and crew responded. At 8:24pm, they located the wreckage on a cliff face and reported that the crash was not survivable. The Emery County Sheriff’s Office reports that “a joint decision was made to call off recovery efforts for the night because it was too dangerous for the helicopter to maneuver against the cliff face in the dark. Recovery efforts resumed on Saturday morning, October 28th. The DPS helicopter flew two Sheriff’s Office personnel to the crash site and hoisted them down to process the scene. The body of the pilot was recovered. He was the only person aboard the aircraft.” Evans Family Media adds our condolences to the family and friends mourning this loss
