Eric R. Johnson 1963~1988

Eric R. Johnson, 25 died May 19, 1988 in a plane crash.  Born April 8, 1963 in Ogden, Utah to John S. and Christa Duessler Johnson.  Eric worked as a charter pilot for Ameriflight and Interwest Jet Center.  He was an instructor for Professional Flight Services.  

Survived by mother, Christa, Salt Lake City; brother, Michael Johnson, New York City, sister, Swantje Johnson, Salt Lake City.

These are articles from the newspaper

Friday, May 20, 1988

Agencies scour canyons for missing small plane

The civil Air Patrol and area police agencies were searching the Wasatch Canyons Friday for a missing small plane that left Salt Lake International Airport Thursday evening with a student pilot and instructor aboard.

Lt. Bob Smith, flight operations officer for the CAP’s Utah Wing, said the Cessna 152 had not been seen since it left the airport at 5:30 p.m. Thursday for a cross-training flight to Park City and back.

Smith said two CAP planes began to search at 2:00 a.m. Friday.  At daybreak, two more planes joined in, as did sheriff’s departments in Utah and Wasatch counties.

Smith said the search was concentrating on flight paths from Salt Lake City to Provo, and to Heber, Park City and through Parley’s and Emigration Canyons back to Salt Lake City.  He said names and addresses of the student pilot and instructor were unavailable, but they were believed to be from the Salt Lake area.

NTSB will start probing plane crash that killed 2

SNOWBIRD - National Transportation Safety Board investigators will begin investigating on Saturday morning a plane crash that killed a Salt Lake man and a Centerville man.

Eric R. Johnson, 25, Salt Lake City, and David A. Beers, 24, Centerville, were found dead in the wreckage of a single-engine Cessna 152.  The plane was located about five miles southeast of Snowbird Ski Resort in Wasatch County by search crews Friday afternoon, Salt Lake Sheriff’s Lt. Mike Wilkinson said.

Johnson, an instructor, and his student pilot Beers, left from Salt Lake International Airport about 5:30 p.m. Thursday.  Reconstruction of radar readings showed that the pair had flown up Emigration Canyon and were either leaving or approaching the Heber City area before returning to Salt Lake City, Wilkinson said.

“The plane was severely damaged.  A wing was dislodged,” said Wilkinson.  “The victims sustained traumatic injuries.”

The wreckage was found near the Pole Line Pass area on the border of Wasatch Mountain State Park and Wasatch National forest between 8,500 and 9,000 feet elevation, officials said.

The civil Air Patrol was alerted at 2 a.m. Friday that the plane had gone down.  CAP airplanes and search crews from Salt Lake, Wasatch and Utah counties searched for the wreckage.  The plane was spotted from the air about 10:55 a.m. and reached by ground crews at 12:15 p.m., Wilkinson said.