NTSB releases new information on Utah Lake plane crash
Oct 23, 2024, 1:42 PM

Members of Saratoga Springs Fire and Rescue return to the Saratoga Springs Marina after searching for a reported plane crash on Utah Lake on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (Isaac Hale, Deseret News)
(Isaac Hale, Deseret News)
PROVO — The National Transportation Safety Board released a preliminary report on the September Utah Lake plane crash that killed two — at one point, two aircraft were just 200 feet apart.
The report said the Cirrus Design Corp SR-22 plane carrying two Utah men was approaching a runway to land at Provo Airport when the accident occurred.
Investigations showed air traffic control told the pilot of the SR-22 to follow another plane landing just before them on the same runway. Controllers then told the pilot to “go around,” because a different plane was still on the runway, the report said.
The SR-22 pilot replied that he was going around, and confirmed the other airplane was still on the runway.
“The controller cleared the pilot to land on runway 13, to which they acknowledged,” the report said. “No further radio transmissions from the pilot were heard.”
Airport surveillance cameras showed the first airplane made a “touch and go landing,” which means the plane touched down on the runway but took off again without stopping. The report said the SR-22 got within 200 feet of the other plane and 50 feet above the ground, then entered a climb and veered sharply right off the runway.
The SR-22 was recorded on the downwind leg of the runway at a ground speed of 110 knots, and a few moments later just before it veered right, it was recorded at 80 knots.

The flight path of a small plane that crashed into Utah Lake on Sept. 27, 2024. (ADS-B Exchange)
Data from the investigation showed the SR-22 lost speed around that time. Then, a witness in another plane said, “they observed the accident airplane ‘bank sharply then stall’ before it ‘fell into a rapid descent with 3 rotations,'” according to the report.
The witness also told investigators they saw the plane’s parachute deploy, but not until just before it hit the water.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it was able to recover almost all the fragments of the airplane, and they were taken to a facility where they will undergo further investigation.
Contributing: Mary Culbertson, KSL TV