Two of the victims in the crash were students at the school, and the student association has planned an event to remember all of the victims.
Mandy Johnson, 20, who died in the Friday crash, was a communication major and a receptionist and bookkeeper in the offices of the Southwest Skin and Cancer clinic. Thursday, she became engaged to be married.
Dallin Ellsworth, 24, was an SUU biology major whose father, Lansing Ellsworth, 50, was a physician who operated the Cedar City clinic. Both father and son died in the wreck. Nine of the 10 victims worked for the clinic and were returning from Moab to Cedar City after spending the day screening for skin cancer and performing dermatology work. The pilot of the plane, David White, 42, also was killed.
Wreckage likely will be removed from the crash site today to a location in Cedar City, where the investigation will continue, National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Keith Holloway said.
No obvious clues to the cause of the crash were found Sunday as investigators documented the badly burned wreckage through the day, he said. The investigation is difficult because there were no witnesses and no flight plan was filed for the trip, he said, though that is not unusual for a plane that size.
NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration investigators will likely finish documenting the wreckage today, Holloway said, but the full investigation could take more than a year.
Daniel Strange, SUU student association vice president, said counselors will be at today's event to help students cope with the tragedy.
"A lot of students knew them and have been affected by this," Strange said.
He described Dallin Ellsworth as someone he respected. "He was a great man."
He said Dallin Ellsworth's wife, Kamber, is pregnant with their first child.
"It's hard to believe this happened to them," he said.
Johnson's mother, Susan, described her daughter Sunday as kind, caring and giving.
"She always said that kindness is contagious," she said from the family home in Hurricane.
Maridee Johnson, Mandy's sister-in-law, said that Mandy received an engagement ring Thursday night from Scott Barney, also a student at SUU, from Hatch.
Mandy's older brother, Met Johnson, said his sister did everything from raising and showing steers to competing in beauty pageants. She was a runner-up last year in the Miss Washington County pageant and four years ago was crowned Miss Hurricane, he said.
She had recently returned from Ukraine where she taught English as part of an exchange program before going back to work at the clinic where she had worked before, her mother said.
Mandy's father, Bevin Johnson, said his whole family had sympathy for the families of the other people killed on the flight.
"We feel sorry for the people who lost dads and mothers and husbands and wives," he said. "[Mandy] loved everyone she worked with in the office. They were like family to her."
mhavnes@sltrib.com
lwhitehurst@sltrib.com
Memorial service
A gathering of community members is scheduled to remember 10 Cedar City-area residents killed in a Friday plane crash near Moab.
The event is scheduled for 7:30 tonight in the open area between the Gerald R. Sherratt Library and the Dixie Leavitt Business building at Southern Utah University in Cedar City.
Condolences can be left online at cedarcondolences.blogspot.com.
