Report: Cause of plane crash that killed Vegas man unknown

A preliminary report on a plane crash that killed Gary Logan as he flew from North Las Vegas Airport to Cedar City, Utah, offers a mystery as to why the Piper Meridian crashed near St. George on June 30.

The National Transportation Safety Board report reveals that Logan left the North Las Vegas Airport at 8:08 a.m. June 30, then crashed in rugged, mountainous terrain 16.3 miles west of St. George, 123 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

Logan had reached 9,600 feet in altitude, the report said. Then he began dropping at a rate of 1,000 feet per minute.

Van McKenney, the investigator in charge of this investigation, said it is unknown at this time if anything was wrong with the plane as it fell at that rate.

The plane was spotted on radar at 5,200 feet. Weather conditions were good, including clear skies, wind blowing about 3.5 mph and visibility at 10 miles, the report said.

Logan had filed a visual flight rules flight plan, meaning that an air traffic control tower would only communicate with Logan when its workload permitted, the report said.

Logan was a Las Vegas resident who owned an Acura auto dealership and flew his Piper Meridian plane for pleasure.

Civil Air Patrol and Washington County Search and Rescue found the burned plane wreckage about 2:30 p.m. June 30 near Utah Hill, east of the Beaver Dam Wash. The plane came to rest under the crest of a small hill, 460 feet northeast of its initial impact, the report said.

It could take another nine months to a year before a final NTSB report is filed to determine the cause of the plane's crash.