Plane crash victims identified

KANAB — The names of four men killed in a plane crash in a remote area of Kane County on Tuesday have been released.

Kane County Emergency Services manager Alan Alldredge posted on the department's Facebook page Friday that the four Las Vegas men were identified as:

• Joshua Stubblefield, 31, the pilot

• Chris Spircu, 44

• Paul Andrews, 32

• Todd Stuntzner, 45

The group took off from Las Vegas just before 11 a.m. Tuesday in their Cirrus SR20 and was headed to the Bryce Canyon Airport.

When the aircraft failed to arrive at its scheduled time, the company that owns the plane, Hunt Aviation LLC out of Las Vegas, reported it missing. The wreckage was located by the Civil Air Patrol about 8 p.m.

The crash was spread out over a wide area in rugged terrain on a ridge-top about 18 miles north of state Route 9 and East North Fork Road, northeast of Zion National Park. The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board were still looking Friday into a possible cause for the crash.

The crash marked the second in southern Utah in less than a week. On Saturday, a  single-engine Cessna 172 with four men on board crashed just 300 feet from the runway of the St. George Municipal Airport. All on board were killed.

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