http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/gen/breaking-news/index.html?p=440 UPDATE: No explanation yet in plane crash that killed 10 near Moab Published August 23, 2008 @ 9:31 pm by Mike Wiggins MOAB, Utah - Authorities Saturday afternoon recovered the bodies of 10 people killed in a fiery plane crash north of town Friday evening. Meanwhile, community members and acquaintances remembered the victims: an experienced pilot and a dedicated doctor and his staff who had recently opened a skin-care clinic here. Grand County Sheriff James Nyland said officials from the National Transportation Safety Board and the Utah State Medical Examiner's Office were on scene investigating the accident. The bodies are expected to be taken to Salt Lake City for autopsies. The twin-engine Beechcraft King Air A-100 crashed just before 6 p.m. Friday, minutes after taking off from Canyonlands Field Airport en route to Cedar City. Witnesses reported seeing a plume of smoke, then an explosion. The victims, all of whom were from Cedar City, were identified as pilot David White; Dr. Lansing Ellsworth, 50, and his son, Dallin Ellsworth, 24; David Goddard and his daughter, Cecilee Goddard, 25; Mandy Johnson; Marcie Tillery, 29; Valerie Imlay, 52; Keith Shumway, 29; and Cami Vigil, 25. The cause of the crash remains under investigation. Investigators expect to release more information during a news conference Sunday afternoon. Moab Mayor David Sakrison, a 35-year resident, said he couldn't recall any incident happening in or around town that involved so many fatalities. "We're not used to this sort of thing," he said. Bill Groff, chairman of the airport's board of directors, said it was only the second fatal airplane crash at the airport that he could remember since it opened in the early 1960s. The other accident involved a young man who stole an airplane that spiraled to the ground after takeoff in the mid-1970s, he said. Lansing Ellsworth was the director of Red Canyon Aesthetics & Medical Spa, which is headquartered in Cedar City and has nine other clinics in Utah, Nevada and Arizona, according to the company's Web site. One of those clinics, Southwest Skin and Cancer, is in Moab, where Ellsworth and his staff had spent the day Friday. They were returning to Cedar City when the plane went down about three miles south of the airport's runway, Nyland said. The airplane was owned by Mark Orkerland of Leavitt Group Wings, which is part of the Leavitt Group, an insurance brokerage, sheriff's officials said. The dermatology group had a time-share agreement with the company for use of the plane. White, the pilot, was an employee of Leavitt Group Wings. Larry VanSlyke, chief pilot with Slickrock Air Guides, an air charter service that operates out of the airport, said staff at the Moab clinic removed a cancerous spot on his face last month. Before the clinic opened, he said he had to drive to Grand Junction for appointments. "I was quite impressed with all the folks. I would have certainly gone back," VanSlyke said, referring to the fact he was supposed to have a checkup in September or October. Sakrison said Lansing Ellsworth was "very well-received and very well-liked," and Allen Memorial Hospital had recruited Ellsworth and his clinic to Moab. "They're trying to broaden their care service," Sakrison said of the hospital. "He was definitely providing a service that was needed." Nick Royon, a pilot and employee with Slickrock, said he met and spoke with White, the pilot, Friday morning when the group arrived from Cedar City, then spoke with him again just before takeoff. He said in the 40 or so minutes he got to know White, he learned White was an "extremely accomplished pilot." Royon said White had served as a pilot instructor for more than 20 years and had recently been licensed for a new plane known as a VLJ, a Very Light Jet. "This is the kind of fellow you would want your son or grandson to hang around," Royon said. VanSlyke, a pilot of 40 years, said the desert heat and thin air of southeastern Utah can affect the mechanical operation of planes and make takeoff difficult. He said while the altitude at the airport is 4,500 feet, the "density altitude" - the altitude adjusted for temperature "is 8,000 feet." "As far as the plane is concerned, it's at 8,000 feet, not 4,500 feet," he said. VanSlyke noted the model of airplane White was flying is a "big, powerful aircraft, one of the best on the market." Given the good weather conditions - clear skies, no wind and warm - and White's piloting experience, VanSlyke and Groff had no answer to suggest for the cause of the crash. But they used the same adjective to describe it: "Catastrophic." <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> If you wish to unsubscribe from the AIRLINE List, please send an E-mail to: "listserv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx". Within the body of the text, only write the following:"SIGNOFF AIRLINE".