Fog forced another pilot to abort landing just before Roy crash

ROY — A veteran pilot flying a corporate jet aborted landing at Ogden-Hinckley Airport shortly before the crash of a small plane in a Roy neighborhood Sunday evening, electing to divert to the Provo Municipal Airport instead.

"We made two attempts," said pilot Steve Lindquist. "On the first one, we aborted the landing a little early. We made one more attempt and it failed so we decided to call it a day."

Lindquist, who flies in and out of the Ogden airport about 100 times a year, said when he left Oakland, Calif., Sunday, he was aware that weather conditions in Ogden could be challenging. Lindquist was piloting a Cessna Citation II jet with a second pilot and six passengers on board.

"The weather was going to be up and down in Ogden. The weather in Provo was forecast to be good indefinitely. We planned to fly to Provo as an alternate," he said.

On the first approach to Ogden Hinckley Airport, the forecast was 1 mile visibility and the sky was clear.

"When we got there, the actual weather forecast had deteriorated. When we reached it, the minimum (visibility) was too low for us to see the airport."

"On the second approach, we went to minimum allowable altitude and we were still unable to see the runway so we aborted and flew to Provo," where he had already arranged ground transportation for his party as a backup plan.

Lindquist said flying in and out of the Ogden airport is a straight-forward process. "There's nothing terribly difficult about that," he said.

Ed Rich, manager of Ogden-Hinckley Airport, said the airport has 100,000 take-offs and landings a year. "We're above average for safety," Rich said.

"Occasionally there's an issue but usually, it's pilot error."

There have been three crashes in and around the airport in the 11 years, including a crash in 2005 in which two men in a plane that lost power crashed in the same general area. Like Sunday's crash, no one on the ground was injured.

Rich said the pilot in Sunday's crash, Clayton Roop, 46, of West Haven, seems to be "very level-headed."

"He isn't the kind of guy you see and say, 'He's got an attitude that's going to get him in trouble.' He didn't have that."

Roop, 46, remains in critical but stable condition in University of Utah Burn Trauma Unit, with second- and third-degree burns on hands and face covering 15 percent of his body.