LYMAN, Wyo. -- A twin-engine aircraft enroute from California to Illinois with at least four people aboard exploded in flight Saturday over the southwest corner of Wyoming, federal officials said. No survivors were found.
Arnold Scott of the National Transportation Safety Board said the Aero Commander 690, a twin-engine corporate turbo-prop, was last seen on the radar of a Salt Lake City air traffic control tower at 10:37 a.m. MDT at 19,000 feet.
Officials in Salt Lake City said the Aero Commander took off from Ogden, Utah, at 9:55 a.m.
At about 10:41 a.m. police in Lyman received a report that an aircraft had exploded in flight, sending wreckage down near Interstate 80 about 16 miles east of town, Scott said.
He said state authorities recovered four bodies, although five people were confirmed on board during the first leg of the flight, from Red Bluff, Calif., about 140 miles north of San Francisco to Ogden, about 40 miles north of Salt Lake City. The plane was enroute to Aurora, Ill.
The plane was owned and piloted by Dr. James P. DeMetry, 62, of Oroville, Calif., Sweetwater County Coroner Michael Vase said. Also killed were his son, Peter, 21, his daughter, Chara, 23, and a family friend, Tyler Foley, 21, all of Oroville, Vase said.
'The Wyoming Highway Patrol, along with Sweetwater (County) deputies, found the downed aircraft engulfed in flames,' said Mary Overgard, a highway patrol spokeswoman in Cheyenne.
'There were no reported survivors and the FAA is conducting an investigation,' she said.
