Springville man killed in ultralight crash

SPRINGVILLE — Sam Warren had meant to videotape his father's first takeoff in an ultralight aircraft.

Instead, he captured his last moments of life.

On Monday afternoon, Kent Warren, 59, of Springville, taxied across the field at Springville Junior High School in his powered hang glider — gaining speed but failing to take flight — as his son watched, with the camera rolling.

When he finally lifted off, he could not gain enough altitude to clear the power lines that bordered the field, police said. The aircraft caught on the power lines, which spun it around and slammed it into the ground, police said.

"He floored it and didn't get up off the ground until just before the power lines," Sam Warren said. "He got up just enough to catch (the power lines), and then tangled himself in there and just fell straight down."

Police say Kent Warren died on impact when he landed in the street at about 12:45 p.m. The crash left some Springville residents without power and a section of 100 South was cordoned off in yellow police tape, as the crumpled ultra-light lay on its back in the middle of the road.

Kent Warren had owned the aircraft for about a month and had talked about it frequently, Sam Warren said. Friends told him it would be safer to fly the ultralight at the airport, but he couldn't wait and wanted to try elsewhere.

"You couldn't talk him out of it," Sam Warren said. "He's as stubborn as anything and wanted to do everything his way. If his body had kept up with him, he would have been doing anything that crossed his mind."

A lifelong friend at the scene, Ernie Parkin, of Springville, said Kent Warren had always been a risk-taker. "He's just an Evel Knievel kind of guy," Parkin said. "There was nothing stopping him."

Kent Warren had never flown an ultralight before his crash on Monday, but he had tried hang gliding and parasailing in the 1970s. Once, he fell 200 feet while parasailing and suffered multiple broken bones, Parkin said.

Sam Warren said his father was capable of flying the ultralight but often thought an accident like this would eventually happen because Kent Warren often participated in risky activities that "pushed it," he said.

"If he wanted to die doing this, that's fine with me. I just wished he would have gotten up in the air just once," Sam Warren said. "I'd have liked to go flying with him once, and I was looking forward to it, but he couldn't wait."

e-mail: jritter@desnews.com