On the morning of a late fall day in 2000, a Utah rancher took up two passengers in his Cessna 175 to search for stray cattle. It was part of the fall roundup, an “annual event looked upon with anticipation by many.” After spotting a few head, they flew toward a bluff where several cowboys on horseback waited. The plan was for the pilot to drop them a scribbled note describing the locations of the strays they had seen. The engine was “running fine,” according to a passenger, but as the airplane approached the bluff, it seemingly encountered a downdraft. The pilot banked hard to the right to avoid the terrain, but the airplane encountered another downdraft, sank again and struck a rocky slope.
One of the cowboys rode away to summon help, while the others rode to the airplane. They extricated the occupants. Despite multiple cuts, bruises, broken bones and other injuries, all were conscious and could sit up and talk. A medevac helicopter reached the scene, after a flight of more than an hour, about two hours after the crash occurred. It took another three-quarters of an hour to get the injured into the helicopter, and almost another hour to return. By the time they reached the hospital, the 55-year-old pilot had died.
