Donald Baker and Dawn Hunter
TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) - Authorities have confirmed the identities of two people who were killed in a plane crash in Utah on Monday, Jan. 18.
Donald L. Baker, 59, and his wife, Dawn Elizabeth Hunter, 55, died when their plane, a 1999 Cessna Citation 525, crashed near Cedar Fort, according to a news release.
Baker was the owner and the pilot of the plane.
Authorities said Baker had filed a flight plan leaving from Salt Lake City to Tucson.
It appears he encountered some kind of mechanical problems and may have been attempting to return to Salt Lake City.
Witnesses told the Utah County Sheriff’s Office they heard a loud boom and saw the airplane, on fire and coming apart, fall to the ground just before 10 a.m.
"I thought someone had actually hit the building," Cheleae Paiz, a manager of an area market, told Gephardt Daily. "I went outside and looked to see if someone had hit the building when the next thing I knew there were cops headed down the road."
According to his Facebook page, Baker is co-owner of Larsen Baker, LLC., a Tucson-based commercial real estate firm.
He married his wife a few years ago.
Staff at Larsen Baker, LLC. released a statement Monday that stated they were "trying to digest this tragedy and ask for forbearance in this extremely trying time."
One real estate expert estimated Larsen Baker, LLC. owns more than 2.5 million square feet of retail space in southern Arizona.
The properties they own include the Marana Marketplace, The Plaza at the Williams Center off Broadway, and the 22nd Street Auto Mall, among others.
Bruce Ash, a certified property manager at the Paul Ash Management company, had known Baker since he moved to Tucson more than 25 years ago.
"I'm just absolutely devastated ... We traveled together. We would have dinner once a month. Don was not the sort of person to take chances. He was a very, very careful pilot; very fastidious at everything that he did, a very, very experienced flyer. I'm just devastated," Ash said.
Harry Mordka, the former owner of Harvey Mordka Realty, described Baker as a professional who was very good at what he did.
Mordka said Baker had acquired his family-owned property, the Frontier Village shopping center at Pima and Alvernon, and done a great job in upgrading the store fronts and parking lot.
Baker was also a central figure in Tucson's Jewish community.
Stu Mellan with the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona described him as a good philanthropist who contributed time, money and expertise into bringing many projects to life.
Baker was a big champion of the Tucson Hebrew Academy and on the board of directors of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona.
"He was a very heavy hitter. Don was one of the biggest developers and operators certainly here in Arizona, very well respected by all of his peers and by all of his competitors. Everybody thought the world of Don Baker," Ash said.
Authorities said the couple was returning home from a conference in Park City, Utah.
Sources close to the investigation said Baker made a mayday call for help when he encountered bad weather.
Story, video and photo gallery: http://www.tucsonnewsnow.com
CEDAR FORT, Utah – A jet plane crash in Utah County has claimed the lives of a prominent Arizona businessman and his wife.
According to Utah County Sheriff Sgt. Spencer Cannon, Donald L. Baker, 59, and his wife, Dawn Elizabeth Hunter, 55, died when their 1999 Cessna Citation 525 crashed in a field near Cedar Fort.
Dispatchers received a call at about 10 a.m. from witnesses who reported seeing an airplane crashing in a ball of flames in a large field just west of Utah Lake, near Provo.
Cannon said they were able to locate two occupants, both of whom are deceased.
According to Flight Aware, a plane registered to Donald L. Baker of Tucson, Arizona, left the Salt Lake International Airport at 9:51 a.m Monday morning, and was headed to the Tucson International Airport. It was scheduled to arrive at 11:33 but the website does not show the plane arriving at its destination.
Sonu Wasu, a reporter with Tucson News Now, said she has spoken with a few of Baker’s colleagues, and they reported a mayday call from Baker was received indicating that he had hit “white-out” conditions, and was requesting permission to fly at higher altitudes when communication was lost.
According to his Facebook page, Baker is a co-owner of Larsen Baker, LLC., a Tucson-based commercial real estate firm. On their Linkedin page they describe the firm as the largest independent retail-commercial property owner in Tucson, managing more than 2 million square feet of commercial space in more than 148 locations throughout Tucson and Southern Arizona.
One real estate expert estimated Larsen Baker, LLC. owns more than 2.5 million square feet of retail space in southern Arizona.
A statement was given to Tucson News Now by Larsen Baker, LLC:
“Donald Baker’s plane was involved in an accident near Salt Lake City, UT. Larsen Baker has not received any official confirmation from authorities. We are trying to digest this tragedy, and we ask for forbearance in this extremely trying time. A statement will be made later this week once more information is known.”
Bruce Ash, a certified property manager at the Paul Ash Management company, told Tuscon News Now that he had known Baker since he moved to Tucson more than 25 years ago.
“I’m just absolutely devastated…we traveled together, we would have dinner once a month. Don was not the sort of person to take chances, he was a very, very careful pilot. Very fastidious at everything that he did, a very, very experienced flyer, I’m just devastated,” Ash said. “He was a very heavy hitter. Don was one of the biggest developers and operators certainly here in Arizona, very well respected by all of his peers and by all of his competitors. Everybody thought the world of Don Baker”
Baker was also a well known figure in a tight knit Jewish community.
In an interview with Tuscon News Now, Stu Mellan with the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona described him as a good philanthropist who contributed time, money and expertise into bringing many projects to life.
Officials said Baker and his wife were returning home from a conference in Park City.
Story, video and photo gallery: http://gephardtdaily.com
CEDAR FORT, Utah - Officials have identified two people killed in a small plane crash in Utah County Monday morning.
Utah County Sheriff's Sgt. Spencer Cannon said a witness saw the twin-engine jet go down just before 10 a.m. and saw flames on the south side of SR-73 near Cedar Fort.
Occupants aboard the aircraft were married couple Donald L. Baker, 59, and Dawn Elizabeth Hunter, 55, from Tucson, Ariz.
The crash had broad debris field spreading over an area approximately two miles long and a quarter-mile wide, officials said.
The couple was returning home from a conference in Park City. Baker had filed a flight plan leaving from Salt Lake City to fly back to Tucson.
“It appears he encountered some kind of mechanical problems and may have been attempting to return to Salt Lake City,” officials say.
Story, video and photo gallery: http://fox13now.com
Two people were killed Monday in a plane crash near Cedar Fort in western Utah County.
According to Utah County Sheriff's Office spokesman Sgt. Spencer Cannon, a call came in at 10 a.m. of a two-engine passenger jet plane crash. Witnesses said they heard a loud boom, felt a vibration and then saw smoke and flames from a small field about a mile and a half east of State Route 73.
The two people killed in the crash have been identified as the pilot and owner of the plane, Donald L. Baker, 59, of Tucson, Arizona, and his wife Dawn Elizabeth Hunter, 55. According to the sheriff's office, the aircraft was a 1999 Cessna Citation 525.
No foul play is expected, and neither drugs nor alcohol are believed to be a contributing factor in the crash, Cannon said.
Baker had filed a flight plan leaving from Salt Lake City bound for Tucson. According to an air traffic control broadcast, Baker lost instrument control mid-flight. However, he reported he could still fly the plane. Radar lost him a few minutes after his emergency mayday call.
"My altitude will not hold right now ... OK -- mayday -- I do need to get up higher, 711 bravo X-ray. I'm losing different instruments. I'd really like to get into clearer weather," Baker said in a radio transmission to an air traffic control tower operator.
The plane was listed as "lost" with the FAA; in flight, the plane stopped transmitting its location.
Cannon believes the plane was possibly flying north to south. The FAA visited the crash site Monday, and the National Transportation Safety Board will arrive on Tuesday. Cannon said the plane had a capacity of eight to 10 people.
Deputies and search-and-rescue crews are on scene. A search perimeter, including a debris field of at least one mile long and up to a half mile wide, has been established as officials try to determine why the plane crashed and attempt to locate the black box.
A witness on the ground, Jordan Jones from El Paso, Texas, said he heard an explosion overhead and the sound of a plane going down, though he never heard an impact. Jones was in the area while making a trailer purchase.
"I heard the explosion. I heard the plane come down," Jones said. "But I didn't hear anything of the plane hitting. ... I waited to hear the explosion, but I didn't hear anything where the plane hit."
Officials cannot confirm if the plane exploded in air or on impact.
Chelene Paiz, owner of the Junction Market, said she heard a loud sound between 9:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. from within the store.
"All of a sudden, I thought someone had hit my building, but I look out and nobody hit my building," Paiz said. "But about 5-10 minutes later, sheriffs head down Station Road."
Weather in the Cedar Fort area was 32 degrees and overcast, with a mix of snow and rain throughout the morning. It is unknown if weather was a contributing factor in the crash.
Police and rescue teams could only access the plane by foot because of the deep snow.
Story, video and photo gallery: http://www.heraldextra.com
Donald Baker and Dawn Hunter
CEDAR FORT, Utah County — Two people died in a plane crash Monday morning, according to Utah County Sheriff's Sgt. Spencer Cannon.
Police identified the victims as Donald Baker, 59, and Dawn Hunter, 55, of Tucson, Arizona. The husband and wife were returning home after a conference in Park City when the plane caught fire, according to Cannon.
Baker, the pilot, made a distress call before the plane crashed, Cannon said.
"We had witnesses who saw a plane go down," he said. "They reported they saw flames and heard a large noise or some kind of crash or explosion" around 10 a.m.
A twin-engine jet capable of carrying as many as 10 people went down about a mile east of state Route 73 in Cedar Fort, about three-quarters of a mile away from the nearest home, he said.
Authorities didn't know Monday whether there were additional fatalities aboard the aircraft or on the ground, according to Cannon.
"That debris field covers maybe as much as a mile, so we're going to be spending a lot of time looking there. We know there were at least two occupants, and both of those have died in the crash," he said.
It was not known Wednesday where the flight originated from, Cannon said, but he was certain it wasn't from the Cedar Valley Airport.
Search and rescue crews were expected to aid in the search.
"It's difficult. It's rural, open country there. There's deep snow," Cannon said, expressing concern that the debris from the crash could be buried by snow.
Tucson businessman Donald L. Baker
(Source: www.larsenbaker.com)
CEDAR FORT, Utah (ABC 4 Utah) Search and rescue crews are sorting through debris and wreckage, Monday evening, after a small twin engine aircraft crashed into a field, killing two people.
The jet crashed about a mile south of SR-73 around 10:00 A.M.
Authorities say the aircraft likely malfunctioned somehow, while still in the air. Witnesses reported seeing flames on the aircraft and debris falling from the sky for nearly a mile before the jet crashed into the field.
"I heard the explosion first, and then I heard the plane coming down," one witness said.
"I thought somebody hit the building. That's what it felt like. It felt like somebody hit the building, and I went and I looked, and there was nobody out there. But then, within five minutes the Sheriff's officers were down the street," said Chelene Paiz, who manages The Junction, a nearby gas station.
The Utah County Sheriff's Office initially responded to the incident and stayed on scene assisting FAA officials, Monday evening. Authorities say NTSB is expected to show up to investigate the crash further on Tuesday.
Victims in Cedar Fort plane crash were identified as Donald L. Baker, 59, & Dawn Elizabeth Hunter, 55, of Tucson, Ariz.
The aircraft was a 1999 Cessna Citation 525. Baker had filed a flight plan leaving from Salt Lake City flying to Tucson, Ariz.
Officials say it appears he encountered some kind of mechanical problems and may have been attempting to return to Salt Lake City.
Story, video and photo gallery: http://www.good4utah.com
(KUTV) Two people have died after a small plane crash in Cedar Fort Monday morning.
According to Utah County Sheriff's Sgt. Spencer Cannon, a small twin-engine jet crashed into a field near Cedar Fort around 10 a.m. Those killed were Donald L. Baker, 59, and his wife, Dawn Elizabeth Hunter, 55, both of Tucson, Arizona.
Cannon said Baker had filed a flight plan from Salt Lake City to Tucson, but it appears the 1999 Cessna Citation 525 aircraft had some type of mechanical problem. The plane may have been on its way back to Salt Lake when the crash occurred, Cannon said.
Investigators are still trying to determine exactly how the crash happened.
Witnesses reported hearing a loud boom and seeing an airplane on fire and coming apart, falling to the ground.
Officials said the debris field was spread over an area about two miles long and a quarter mile wide. Investigators were conducting a search of the area to locate any items from the plane or other evidence that might be related to the crash. Heavy snow and fog made the search difficult.
Story, video and photo gallery: http://kutv.com
An Arizona couple died after a private jet flying from Salt Lake City to Tucson crashed in a snowy field in Utah on Monday morning, officials said.
Deputies from the Utah County Sheriff's Office responded to the crash after residents in Cedar Fort, a small town about 40 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, witnessed the crash of the small twin-engine aircraft at around 10 a.m.
"Witnesses reported hearing a loud boom and seeing an airplane, on fire and coming apart, falling to the ground," the Sheriff's Office said in a statement.
Deputies discovered two bodies in the plane. The victims were later identified as Donald L. Baker, 59, and his wife, Dawn Elizabeth Hunter, 55, both of Tucson.
Baker is the co-owner and principal of Larsen Baker LLC, a prominent Tucson-based company that develops and manages commercial real estate and retail properties. According to the company's website, Baker was responsible for construction, development, acquisition and management of the firm's properties.
The plane, a Cessna 525 CitationJet CJ1, was registered to Baker.
The plane left Salt Lake City International Airport about 10 minutes before the crash and was scheduled to land in Tucson at 11:30 a.m., according to the FlightAware website, which tracks aircraft and flight paths.
Sgt. Spencer Cannon, a spokesman for the sheriff's office, said it appeared Baker experienced mechanical problems and may have been trying to fly back to Salt Lake City.
Search and rescue volunteers helped investigators comb through the broad debris field, looking for clues about the cause of the crash, the Utah authorities said.
Story and photo: http://www.azcentral.com
