Pilot dies in Antelope Island plane crash

ANTELOPE ISLAND — A 37-year-old pilot of a small experimental aircraft died Wednesday when it crashed halfway up the rocky slopes on the west side of Antelope Island.

Kirk Babbit of Stansbury Park took off from Tooele and was scheduled to land at Skypark Airport in Woods Cross. When he didn't arrive, concerned family members and friends reported him "overdue."

The Davis County Sheriff's Office immediately called out volunteer searchers from the Utah Civil Air Patrol, which is affiliated with the U.S. Air Force. CAP volunteer crews took off in two planes at 2:45 p.m. and began searching several grids over the Tooele Valley and the Great Salt Lake.

"It looked like a patch of snow," said Lt. Col. Max Kieffer, the CAP pilot who spotted the plane from 1,000 feet in the air at 4:45 p.m. "Like an out-of-place patch of snow."

Kieffer dropped to about 500 feet and made another pass down the island's bowl-shaped westside canyon to get a better look at the crash site and the crumpled white metal remains of the plane lying on the dark background of the mountain's loose rock.

Coordinates were relayed and the Department of Public safety and a medical helicopter landed, but could not immediately get to site because of the canyon's steep terrain.

The DPS helicopter ferried search and rescue teams from the state park headquarters on the east side of the island to an area near the crash site.

"We've been able to identify a craft and an individual in the plane itself," said Davis County Sheriff's Lt. Brad Wilcox.

Searchers had to hike about 1 1/2 miles along the west shore of island in the Great Salt Lake to reach the site.

"Steep and rugged, extremely rugged," Wilcox said of the terrain.

At 7:45 p.m. a DPS helicopter transported Babbit's body down from the site. His body will be taken the state medical examiner's office where an autopsy will be performed.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board have been notified and will investigate the crash.

The plane, which appeared largely intact, is a Zodiac 601XL, according to CAP

The Civil Air Patrol had contacted authorities earlier about an emergency signal on the west side of Antelope Island.

Contributing: Jacob Hancock

E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com