Behind the recovery

The Carbon County Coroner’s Office discovered the cause of death of a California man who died after crashing his plane of Pennock Mountain.

Gordon Davis, 63, of Tehachapi, Calif., died due to exposure to extreme temperature, according to the coroner’s report. The report stated trauma was also a factor.

Dr. Pat Allen conducted the autopsy.

The Carbon County Sheriff’s Department, Civil Air Patrol and several volunteers searched the west and east sides of Pennock Mountain From the night of March 3 into the morning of March 5.

A U.S. Military Helicopter and Civil Air Patrol fixed-wing aircraft were scheduled to search the area March 2, but both aircraft were grounded due to severe weather. Ground efforts also ended the night of March 2 because of severe weather.

March 3, searchers determined the crashed plane was on the east side of the summit.

A U.S. Military helicopter from a base in Aurora, Colo. Responded at about 10:30 a.m., Stark said. The helicopter located the wreck within an hour.

Shortly after, a medic in the helicopter roped down to the crash site and found Davis dead under the wing of his plane.

The Carbon County Sheriff’s Office received a call after 5 p.m. on March 2 reporting an emergency locating transmitter had been activated, indicating a plane had crashed.

The Sheriff’s Office later determined it was Davis’ plane. Davis was traveling from Utah to Laramie. Searchers speculated Davis’ plane went down due to severe weather conditions and strong winds.

For more details on the search, see page 8.