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USU Student Dies In Plane Crash In Southern Utah

plane crash gorge
Chris Holmes

The bodies have been recovered and identified, but the questions remain in the crash of a single-engine aircraft in the Virgin River Gorge Sunday night. The victims were teenage brothers from Clinton, Utah.

Daulton Whatcott, 19, just received his pilot's license. He was excited about pursuing a career in commercial aviation according to a Facebook post by a family member.

Daulton was accompanied by his 16-year-old brother Jaxon. The two were en-route to a basketball tournament in Las Vegas.

The investigation is by no means a simple matter- given the rugged terrain where the plane went down, says Trish Carter of the Mohave County Sheriff's Office, speaking to the media.

"It's a very jagged, very steep area, and our technical rope team has been brought in from search and rescue. So it's going to be quite a process," Carter said.
The plane was registered to a company in Bountiful.

Chris Holmes holds a Masters of Professional Communication degree from Southern Utah University. While at SUU his work received numerous awards including the 2009 King Foundation Best of Festival Award in the National Broadcast Education Association Festival of Media Arts. Chris is co-host of the daily public affairs program, Big Picture Morning Show on radio station KSUB (Cedar City, Utah). He also is a sports and news contributor at Cherry Creek Media. He lives in Cedar City, with wife, Marie and five children.