Saturday, January 07, 2023

Piper PA-34-220T Seneca V, N814WT: Fatal accident occurred January 04, 2023 in New Harmony, Washington County, Utah

Those who may have information that might be relevant to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation may contact them by email witness@ntsb.gov, and any friends and family who want to contact investigators about the accident should email assistance@ntsb.gov. You can also call the NTSB Response Operations Center at 844-373-9922 or 202-314-6290.

This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed.

Additional Participating Entity:
Federal Aviation Administration / Flight Standards District Office; Salt Lake City, Utah 

Aircraft crashed under unknown circumstances in mountainous terrain.  

1st West Aviation Inc


Date: 04-JAN-23
Time: 22:51:00Z
Regis#: N814WT
Aircraft Make: PIPER
Aircraft Model: PA34
Event Type: ACCIDENT
Highest Injury: FATAL
Total Fatal: 1
Flight Crew: 1 Fatal
Pax:  0 
Aircraft Missing: No
Damage: SUBSTANTIAL
Activity: UNKNOWN
Flight Phase: EN ROUTE (ENR)
Operation: 91
City: NEW HARMONY
State: UTAH

Fred W. Jones
1952 ~ 2023
~


Fred W. Jones was born September 26, 1952 in Murray, Utah and passed away on January 4, 2023 doing what he loved. Fred was a dedicated husband, father and grandfather, who devoted his life to providing a wonderful life for his family. He was hardworking, innovative, a real forward thinker who was successful with everything he touched.

Doing things the right way was Fred's way. Fred was always tinkering or working on something with a screw driver and paper towel in his back pocket. He had a passion for real estate, developing and seeing things grow and flourish from the start. He enjoyed the rewards of hard work and could be seen frequently working in his immaculate yard.

Fred loved snow skiing, water skiing, golfing, Maui, snorkeling, playing his guitars, his home in St. George and being a private pilot. Fred found great pleasure in teasing his grandchildren and loved them with all of his heart. He was a pillar of strength for his family and friends and was daily teaching his children and grandchildren in all aspects of life. Fred was never afraid to tell you what he thought; and if you needed a protector or fighter, he would be right along your side.

Fred was a member of the Petroleum Equipment Institute, where he served on many boards and committees over the last 50 years. Fred was an icon in the Petroleum Equipment industry and well recognized by his peers.

Fred was an active member in his community serving on the Murray City Council in the late 1990's. He is an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who dedicated his time and talents to several bishoprics, high council positions and an inner city mission in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. Fred loved serving in the Temple and was currently serving with his wife, Andrea, in the Jordan River Temple.

Fred married Linda Allred Jones on August 18, 1972, and had two beautiful daughters and four grandchildren. Fred and Linda worked hard together for 43 years until she passed away on February 3, 2015.

Fred married Andrea Felt Howell on August 29, 2020. Together they traveled, golfed, and planned new adventures. They were looking forward to more travel and were planning on serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Their companionship was easy, effortless and fun. We are sad that their adventures together were cut short.

Fred is preceded in death by his parents, A. Lynn Jones and Opal Swallow; his wife, Linda Allred Jones; and his brother and sister-in-law, Gordon and Sharon Jones.

He is survived by his children: Kristy (Ted) Soffe and Jesica (Ryan)Taylor; grandchildren: Cole (Tova) Taylor (with one on the way), Carter Taylor, Meg (Kade) Soffe Brasher, and Carson Soffe; step- children: Megan (Michael) Bennett, Rachel (Jordan) Howell, Robert Howell, Lauren Howell, and Rachel Howell; step-grandchildren: James, Ella and Henry Bennett, Abigail, Stockton, Miriam, and Ethan Howell; siblings: Janice (Larry) Pehrson, and Mark (Karen) Jones.

In lieu of flowers please send donations to one of the following charities. These charities have provided support to Fred's grandchildren over the years: Shriners Children's Hospital and Autism Speaks. Scroll down the page for the links.

We also want to thank all the first responders, search and rescue teams and the good Samaritans of New Harmony that provided us love and support. Special thanks to Lon and Donna Young for all their assistance.

Funeral services will be held on Tuesday, January 10, 2023 at 12:00 p.m. at the Holladay 4th Ward Chapel located at 4917 S. Viewmont Street, Holladay, Utah. A visitation will be held prior to the service from 9:30–11:30 a.m. Interment will be at Murray City Cemetery.

To watch the webcast live of the funeral services, please go to www.jenkins-soffe.com.


Fred W. Jones
1952 ~ 2023


NEW HARMONY, Utah (ABC4) — The pilot of a small-engine aircraft was killed after the plane crashed in southern Utah on Wednesday, January 4.

According to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, deputies received a call at approximately 8:30 p.m. about a pilot flying a small-engine aircraft who did not land at their destination after taking off around 2:30 p.m. from St. George. The last known location of the aircraft was in a remote area just north of New Harmony and south of the Iron-Washington County border.

The Washington County and Iron County Sheriff’s Offices as well as a helicopter with the Utah Department of Public Safety responded and searched the area on Wednesday, but they were unable to locate the crash site.

On Jan. 5, members of the Washington County Search and Rescue Team and the DPS helicopter went back to search the area, and they were able to locate the crash site within the GPS area. Local and federal investigators responded to the scene and recovered a body.

The identity of the pilot will be withheld for now, per the family’s request.

Investigation into the cause of the crash is ongoing.

“We are grateful for the successful multi-agency collaboration in locating the crash site and recovering the pilot, including the New Harmony Fire Department for providing the fire station to host the command center for this operation,” the sheriff’s office states.

32 comments:

  1. Wonder why this twin engine plane crashed ?

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  2. a fight route frequently flown. Reports suggest instrument meteorological conditions.

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  3. Replies
    1. SRM is a fact. It's no more dangerous than single pilot VFR. If you know your limits and apply the 5 P's and the 3 P's in flight as well as good SA and risk management.
      It's been decades that all the rules written in blood have been consolidated so if you follow everything precisely you will be safe. Diverge from it and you will not be. Simple enough.

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    2. Leaving the house in the morning is risky.

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    3. To the commenter above, single driver driving on a dry highway in the day has one set of risks and a single driver driving at night in a rain storm has another set of risks. Both can be done, and are done, safely and effectively every day and night. But there are different sets of risk in each, no doubt

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    4. Seems pretty foolish to suggest IFR is as safe as VFR. It's not that cut and dried. Smacks of arrogance. A lot of that on this board.

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    5. Stop it! I flew single seat fastjets for 8 years, IMC, but mainly VMC, in close formation day and night, winter and summer. Nothing said here about IMC/IFR flight is wrong. Two factors are super important, peformance of the aircraft, and training and performance of the pilot. I find it easier to fly IFR than VFR, because VFR flight require more planning and mental work.I have some experience in the Seneca V, and find it an under performing dog, particularly in icing condition. It’s a nice 2 seater trainer at your local airport. When the ceiling begin to fall, an untrained pilot starts to sweat, and often run into risks, sometimes taking you to the crash site. It is not fruitful to speculate what happened here, before more details of the pilots training, medical condition etc, the aircraft itself and the prevailing weather conditions at the time of the flight. RIP.

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  4. Last FlightAware track at 2:59 PM plane had climbed from 7200 ft to 7500 ft at 960 feet per minute then nothing . Did plane hit a mountain at 7500 ft ? Wonder if pilot had iPad with synthetic vision showing terrain. ? Plane was level at 7200 ft for last few minutes then climbed at 960 ft per min rate of climb .

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  5. 14WT was returning @ 21:39Z to SLC Salt Lake City, UT., arriving @ 19:14Z.
    observed @ KSGU 042056Z AUTO 21003KT 10SM BKN037 BKN044 OVC060 07/03
    A3024 RMK AO2 SLP245 60000 T00670033 56013
    decoded as Reporting station KSGU
    Observed at 20:56 UTC on the 4th
    Automated observation
    3 knot wind from 210˚
    Visibility of 10 statute miles
    Broken clouds at 3700 feet
    Broken clouds at 4400 feet
    Overcast clouds at 6000 feet
    Temperature 7˚C and dewpoint 3˚C
    Pressure: 30.24inHg (1023mb)
    Remarks follow
    Automated site with precipitation descriminator
    Sea level pressure: 1024.5mb (30.26inHg)
    Traces of precipitation in the last 6 hours
    Precision temperature 6.7˚C and dewpoint 3.3˚C
    Pressure falling by 1.3mb (3 hours)

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  6. Cedar City was reporting much better weather than St. George and there was all sorts of student helicopter and aircraft traffic within a few thousand feet of his altitude 3-5 miles in front of him. I'd say he was almost definitely not IFR (squawking 1200 and ground track is not what you'd expect for IFR), but the leading edge of the weather was just arriving at St.George and along the Pine Valley and Harmony Mountains, and the weather can be drastically different in that valley, anyway. Turning around here might have been a lack of a broader situational awareness - one of those times that continuing straight ahead and/or descending might have been a better option as he would have quickly broken out. The elevation at the last point of contact was exactly 7200 (Stoddard Mountain to the west is up to 8390' versus about 5500' along I-15 at the valley floor. Given this, I'm guessing he didn't have a moving map sectional or integrated terrain displayed anywhere in the cockpit. That or he got completely disoriented while attitude flying.

    KCDC 042053Z AUTO 21013KT 10SM CLR 02/00 A3017 RMK AO2 SLP231 T00170000 56010
    KCDC 042153Z AUTO 22011KT 10SM FEW120 02/00 A3017 RMK AO2 SLP234 T00170000
    KCDC 042253Z AUTO 22009KT 10SM OVC090 02/00 A3016 RMK AO2 SLP230 T00170000

    Clouds there were at 14-17k MSL, gradually lowering throughout the rest of the afternoon.

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  7. Fred Jones owned his acft since new 12-Dec-2014, 1ST WEST AVIATION INC. Recent history, this was his 6th flight between SLC & SGU since early Oct., and suspect likely many more.

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    Replies
    1. FAA Reg. Fred Jones, Certificate: PRIVATE PILOT, 1/29/2010.
      Ratings: PRIVATE PILOT. AIRPLANE SINGLE ENGINE LAND, AIRPLANE MULTIENGINE LAND, INSTRUMENT AIRPLANE.

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    2. Wonder why there is no report on KR about the R44 WBTV helicopter crash in Charlotte NC on Nov 22, 2022 with 2 fatalities

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    3. Why are you obsessed with this particular R44 accident? I have seen this mentioned in several Comment sections. It has nothing to do with this accident!

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    4. The R44 accident is listed under January 9, 2023.

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  8. The WBTV pilot had odd pilot records on FAA web site . One record was listed as Jacques Christopher Tayag with pilot license shown but expired medical dated 12/2007 . Another record was listed for Christopher Jacques Tayag with no pilots license shown but with a current medical dated 06/2022 but has now been removed from FAA web site . However the report showing the license with expired medical is still showing on FAA wen site . Seems odd same last name Tayag would have first and middle names reversed on 2 different reports on FAA web site then FAA delete one report with current medical but not license but leave other report with expired medical but showing pilot license .

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  9. Just wondering if we can stop with all the digging into the airman registry. It’s been proven fruitless for a number of reasons, chief amongst them that the information is often out of date or hidden, anyway. It also can bring up individuals who are not involved, but now have their names hit on Google searches as associated with accidents.

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    Replies
    1. "chief amongst them that the information is often out of date or hidden, anyway"
      hidden where ??
      in this public register @ https://amsrvs.registry.faa.gov/airmeninquiry/
      prior to flying with a pilot, suggest you review their credentials and logbook!

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    2. None of it is hidden. Mine is there but it is difficult to find.

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  10. FAA demands pilots be accurate with data so why can’t FAA be accurate reporting pilot records. I was almost fired as airline pilot because FAA did not update my medical records .

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    Replies
    1. Didn’t you have the certificate in your possession..?

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    2. The FAA also requires all your required information, ie. address be correct and current...Paper in your wallet means squat in regards to that requirement.

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  11. The information gleaned from the registry has no bearing on 99% of accidents, but is often trotted out here like it’s the missing key to solving the accident, usually in the form of “just asking questions,” as if there’s something suspicious when there’s a mis entry or the info is simply out of date. Meanwhile, there are/were people on the other end of that name. Identities are not things to be casual with.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for writing that and doing it quite concisely and elegantly.

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  12. …even if they’re publicly accessible. If we’re hung up on some inconsistencies, can’t we just say that “there are inconsistencies with the pilot’s name in the registry” rather than reposting personal information? In this very thread, the comment with the registry info doesn’t have anything to do with this accident, yet now the name is attached to this accident. And that’s irresponsible, no matter how you cut it.

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    1. concerning your "now the name is attached to this accident. And that’s irresponsible"
      Circumstances of this accident are public knowledge thru multiple media reports as are the name(s) and places associated with all sorts of accidents and incidents throughout the US; thus the accident reports on this site are no different.
      as to the public FAA pilot registry, as noted above it describes a pilot's qualifications, which are very relevant to possible accident causes.

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    2. Lol. Except the poster completely misfired in publishing that name, completely unrelated to this accident. It remains irresponsible and is an example of why we shouldn’t be irresponsibly posting names (and irresponsibly defending those that do). Let the article do that work.

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    3. The big internet picture is much broader than just random search engine scrapes taken from KR forum comments. Very few name combinations can be expected to not return associations unrelated to the exact person of interest.

      Those nice women calling you several times per week from their New Delhi phone bank that ask for you by name have a compilation of your public records up on their screen. They know your full name, address, age, voter affiliation and which charities you donated to (many charities sell their donor lists). Much more info about you can be purchased.

      Thinking that publicly available names posted or mis-posted in KR comments are making an impact in that immense sea of shared names and public data just isn't logical.

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  13. It’s simply not necessary. It contributes nothing to the conversation except pot-stirring: “look at me, I have some stuff to share!” Especially in this conversation, where it has absolutely zero to do with the accident. And even if it was aimed at the correct accident, it still is contributing nothing but pot-stirring. We’re here to figure out what we can do to avoid missteps. Dragging out those kinds of details is putting the cart WAY before the ox.

    We can play games with logic all day: Was this the correct thread for that info? You don’t have to answer that, we all know.

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    Replies
    1. The person cross posting the R44 info here certainly was in that stuff to share mode, but routinely looking at the registry to ascertain whether an accident pilot in the thread at hand was newly certified often provides important context. Context helps in gaining a better understanding, which can help pilots who read KR and have similar circumstances make better choices.

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  14. What is a small-engine plane?

    I fly a 152, and think of Seneca’s as big-engine planes.

    But my Cox .049 glo-fuel Skymaster thinks my 152 has a big-engine.

    Maybe anything smaller than a GE90 is a small-engine?

    I dunno…

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