This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Skies filled with smoke drifting from wildfires burning in California may have contributed to the deaths of two brothers whose single-engine plane crashed Friday evening in southern Utah.
Brothers Benjamin and James Timpson, of Centennial Park, Ariz., died when their single-engine Piper crashed about 11 miles from Kolob Reservoir. They had taken off from the Bountiful airport.
Ladell Bistline, Colorado City Municipal Airport manager, said Sunday other pilots who had flown into the airport earlier reported severe visibility problems north of the airport due to smoke.
"There were two pilots that came in about 5 p.m. Friday and they said [visibility] was really low and then you add darkness to that," Bistline said. "He would have had about zero visibility about that time."
Melissa Timpson said her husband, who was piloting the plane, called her at about 7:30 p.m. Friday to tell her he had passed over Fillmore and expected to land at the municipal airport in just over an hour.
The men's families contacted the Civil Air Patrol early Saturday morning after they failed to arrive home. The crash ignited a small fire, which helped searchers locate the plane. Bistline estimates the plane went down about 8 p.m., based on where it was found.
Benjamin Timpson, 29, was president of Regency Mortgage Corp.'s Salt Lake office, according to state records.
Both men were brothers of John Timpson, leader of The Work of Jesus Christ, a fundamentalist Mormon faith based in Centennial Park. The community, which has about 1,500 residents, is located a few miles south of Colorado City.
The brothers both had young families, said their sister-in-law, Susie Timpson.
Benjamin Timpson flew regularly between Colorado City and Salt Lake because of his business.
"It is quite a blow to the entire aviation community when you have something like this happen, two brothers. It's pretty sad," Bistline said.
Funeral services for the men had not been set as of Sunday afternoon.