Community rallies around families of Iron County plane crash victims
Apr 26, 2022, 7:39 AM | Updated: Jun 20, 2022, 1:57 pm
SPRINGVILLE, Utah — Family and friends on Monday were mourning the loss of four people in a weekend plane crash near Cedar City.
Pilot Steven Eatchel, a deputy with the Utah County Sheriff’s Office, was killed in the crash Saturday along with his wife Lindsay, brother Thomas Eatchel and his girlfriend, Danielle Deagostini.
“It just doesn’t feel real yet,” said the Eatchels’ sister, Angela Dangerfield, in an interview with KSL TV. “Tommy was like … he was the one I could always go to if I needed help. And Steven — he was always my therapist. I called him for anything and everything just to vent.”
Utah County Sheriff’s Office mourns deputy killed in plane crash
Dangerfield and her husband, Alex, were watching Steven and Lindsay Eatchel’s four children at the time the plane went down.
“They’re definitely going to be transitioning in a lot of different ways,” Alex Dangerfield acknowledged.
The couple was in the process of planning three funerals Monday afternoon.
“Our time here is limited,” Dangerfield said. “If you really care about somebody, make sure you’re cherishing the time you do have.”
In Steven and Lindsay’s neighborhood, those who knew them were teary-eyed and beside themselves over how to make sense of what happened.
Dozens of neighbors had already gathered and tied purple ribbons to tree trunks while leaving paper hearts and notes of love on the front door and windows of the Eatchels’ home. Children offered similar expressions with chalk on the sidewalk.
“We came over here and it was just four of us,” said neighbor and friend Jenny Transtrum. “Then a whole bunch of kids from the neighborhood came over and started writing all the chalk messages.”
She said the neighborhood was processing the grief the best way it knew how.
“I think it was just people wanting to show our love in some way,” Transtrum said.
Transtrum remembered Lindsay Eatchel as someone who loved her children and who was an incredible teacher to everyone around her.
“She really just was fearless,” Transtrum said. “She just was quiet about her fearlessness and was willing to do anything that was asked of her without being concerned about her own anxieties and things like that and I feel like she helped me to feel more brave because she was brave.”
Family members set up GoFundMe* accounts for Steven and Lindsay Eatchel, Thomas Eatchel, and Danielle De Agostini.
Transtrum acknowledged feeling helpless under the circumstances.
“It hurts people in ways you don’t expect,” Transtrum said.
*KSL TV does not assure that the money deposited to the account will be applied for the benefit of the persons named as beneficiaries. If you are considering a deposit to the account, you should consult your own advisers and otherwise proceed at your own risk.
