Bodies of 3 who were killed in plane crash are retrieved

A helicopter was used to retrieve the bodies of three men killed in a plane crash near the Iron-Beaver county line.

The men were flying from Idaho Falls to St. George when their plane crashed into a mountainside near the town of Minersville. They were identified Wednesday as Robert Wolz, Tom Sainsbury and Gaylen Nelson. No ages or hometowns were available.

"The plane's up at about the 7,500-foot elevation," Iron County Sheriff Mark Gower told the Deseret Morning News.

Gower said the six-seater plane appears to have crashed in bad weather.

"There was a really low cloud deck at the time," the sheriff said. "The mountain range was concealed by the clouds."

The pilot checked weather conditions at about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday as the plane flew over Milford. The plane was supposed to arrive in St. George at 9:30 a.m., and by early afternoon airport authorities notified police when the plane was overdue and an emergency beacon had gone off.

A Utah Department of Public Safety helicopter spotted the wreckage about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, and a pair of Iron County Search and Rescue members hiked to the scene to confirm the deaths.

"Their report to me, it appeared they died on impact," Gower said.

The National Transportation Safety Board is expected to arrive in the Cedar City area soon to begin investigating the exact cause of the crash.

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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com