Monday, March 3, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
A twin-engine plane crashed in a snowstorm while trying to land at Salt Lake International Airport, killing a Las Vegas hotel-casino executive and injuring the pilot and two other passengers.
Elaine M. Romano, 56, died in the crash. Her body was removed from the crash site late Sunday by the state medical examiner's office.
Romano was president of LGT Advertising, an in-house advertising firm for the Orleans hotel-casino, and director of advertising for Coast Resorts, which owns the Orleans.
The 10-seat aircraft, en route from Las Vegas, crashed in a pasture a mile south of the runway about 7:15 p.m. Sunday.
Jess Gomez, a spokesman for LDS Hospital, said a passenger told medical staff that visibility was near zero as the aircraft approached the airport.
The passenger, Richard Myrick, 59, said the four were with the Orleans and were going to Salt Lake City to arrange filming of a commercial for the hotel, said Rick White, Orleans vice president of marketing.
LGT's film production company is in Salt Lake City, he said.
"He said it was a whiteout, really heavy snow," Gomez said of Myrick, LGT Advertising art director. "The passenger said they couldn't see a thing -- not the lights, not the runway, and then they went down in a field short (of the runway)."
Myrick and the pilot, Robert Parry, 55, were in serious but stable condition today. Parry, who suffered a head injury and fractured leg, was in surgery early today.
The other passenger, 49-year-old Christopher Johns, executive chef for the Orleans, suffered bruises to the chest and was in stable condition today at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center.
The group was planning to return to Las Vegas at the end of the week, White said.
Air traffic control spokesman Brian Pitts said the tower confirmed the aircraft was making its approach when it dropped off radar.
Woody Hemphill, an employee at the Westico, an asphalt-rubber business near the crash site, said he arrived just moments after the plane went down.
"It was snowing like crazy," and the plane piled up a huge mound of snow in the field, he said. He said the plane appeared to have struck a tree.
Salt Lake Fire Battalion Assistant Chief Dennis McKone said the fuselage of the aircraft was largely intact, though the tail was almost completely torn off. Rescuers went in through a side door to extricate the victims, after removing some of the seats.
McKone said it took about an hour to free the victims and injured.
Fuel spilled from the aircraft into the snow but there was no fire.
McKone said fire trucks from the airport were among the first on the scene and retardant was sprayed on the fuel. About 50 firefighters were sent to the scene.
Ginger Bearclaugh, one of the first firefighters on the scene, told the Salt Lake Tribune that the pilot kept asking how far they were from the airport.
The area of the crash is a mixture of pastures and industry with a few dwellings. There were no immediate reports of anyone having seen the crash. An occupant of what may have been the nearest home just said they always were hearing planes go over. He declined to be interviewed.
The airport received 3 1/2 inches of snow Sunday night.
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