Clues sought in fatal plane crash

Investigators had little more than ash and blackened shards of metal to sift through as they tried to figure out what caused a twin-engine plane to crash shortly after taking off, killing all 10 people on board.

“The aircraft was pretty much consumed by fire,” said Keith Holloway, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board. “When there aren’t identifiable pieces, sometimes we don’t know right away what was working and what wasn’t working.”

A preliminary crash report could be finished late this week or early next, Holloway said, two days after nine members of a dermatology clinic and the pilot who was flying them died in eastern Utah.

Moab was one of nine regular stops for the team from Southwest Skin and Cancer/Red Canyon Aesthetics & Medical Spa in Cedar City, a rapidly growing town of 28,000 in southwestern Utah.