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Roy • The heavy fog lifted Monday morning, revealing the twisted, strewn wreckage of the small aircraft that crashed in a Roy neighborhood Sunday night.
Portions of two homes near 4300 South and 2050 West sustained heavy damage from a raging fire that erupted after the small Cessna 210, piloted by Clayton Roop of West Haven, first hit power lines before taking out a large pine tree and shattering on impact.
Roop remained in critical but stable condition in the burn unit of University Hospital, with second- and third-degree burns on his hands and face, according to a hospital news release. Roop will need to undergo skin grafts to repair the damage from his burns and is expected to remain in the hospital for two to four weeks, the release states.
Meanwhile, Federal Aviation Administration investigators are reviewing what transpired. The FAA's on-scene documentation will, in turn, assist the National Transportation Safety Board to conduct a larger study.
"We are in the process of gathering the audio recordings between the pilot and the tower, and also the approach controller," said NTSB Investigator Kurt Anderson.
In the meantime, two couples returned Monday to assess the damage to their homes, which share a backyard fence.
Fire, exploding propane tanks and scattered debris took out the garage and master bedroom of Ned and Pat Newman's home, and also the master bedroom and an adjoining garden room of Darrel and Marie Gamble's house to the south.
"It was like the noonday sun," Kevin Gamble said of the wall of fire that erupted behind his parents' house, where 14 family members — the youngest his 3-year-old daughter — witnessed the frightening event as they were finishing Sunday dinner.
Ken Hodges, Darrel and Marie Gamble's son-in-law, remembers a similar crash in the same neighborhood five years ago — again, the family was gathered at the long oval dining table.
"They bought it for retirement, to have the kids over for Sunday dinner," Hodges said of the house the Gambles purchased 12 years ago. "And now this is twice."
Blue sky could be seen Monday through gaping holes in the roof of the Gamble home. Thick layers of water-soaked sheetrock and insulation had been cleared from two damaged rooms earlier. Pat Newman counted her blessings Monday as she approached her home to see if a chair she inherited from her grandfather had survived the trauma.
"Yes, we lost a lot of material things, but that's really not important," Newman said. "Every bit of them can be replaced."
Newman was just grateful that everyone got out alive — including "and especially" the pilot.
"I looked at that ball of fire, that whole tree, the plane, everything," Newman said. "When we found out that he was alive, that was the greatest relief."
Kay Walker, who lives two houses west of the crash site, hopes that officials will consider her beleaguered block as they plan for future growth in the Roy-Ogden area.
"I will fight to keep commercial planes from landing [at Ogden's airport]," Walker said.
The NTSB will review weather conditions and recorded radar data that will reveal the flight pattern, air speed and altitude of Roop's plane, which took off from Hurricane earlier Sunday afternoon. The pilot's flight, medical and aircraft maintenance records will also be reviewed, Anderson added.
"He had been cleared for an instrument approach into the [Ogden Hinckley] airport," Anderson said, noting that Roop had not reported any malfunction of his 1978 six-seater plane.
The investigation is expected to take six months.
A brief preliminary report will be posted on http://www.ntsb.gov later this week. And the plane's pieces will be completely cleared from the crash site Tuesday, then transported to Phoenix, Anderson said.
Tell it to the council
P The Roy City Council meets Tuesday at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 5051 S. 1900 West. Some residents said they intend to speak out about the crashes that have affected this neighborhood.