NTSB Factual Report

On December 29, 2017, about 1441 mountain standard time, a Cessna 172M, N4395R, impacted water in the northern portion of the Great Salt Lake. The commercial pilot and a private pilot rated passenger were fatally injured. The airplane was registered to the Hill Flying Club Inc., and operated by a private individual as a 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the local flight and no flight plan had been filed. The flight originated from the Ogden-Hinckley Airport (OGD), Ogden, Utah, about 1420.

After family members became concerned that the pilots had failed to return from their flight, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued an Alert Notification (ALNOT) for the airplane. No emergency locator beacon signal was reported. A ground and air search ensued, however, on January 2, 2018, the search was terminated. Subsequently, several days later, an area where the airplane may have impacted was calculated, in the northern portion of the Great Salt Lake. The area was scanned with sonar equipment, and a target that resembled the airplane was identified in about 20 ft of water. On January 13, the target was cofirmed to be the missing airplane.