EVANSTON — A single-engine airplane crashed about a mile north of Evanston Sunday afternoon leaving two people dead. 

Officials identified the passengers as William and Michelle Patterson. According to a press release issued by the Uinta County Sheriff’s Office, the plane is registered to William Patterson, listing an Evanston address. Evanston-Uinta County Airport Burns Field manager Mike LaSalle said, however, that the couple lived out of state.

“[The plane] belonged to a guy who lived in Park City, but the airplane was based here,” LaSalle told the Herald on Monday. “They were inbound from Tulsa, Oklahoma, … they were actually headed here from Florida.”

Two residents — one from 2nd Avenue and one from Cottonwood Street — initially called dispatch advising officials of the crash at 3:12 p.m. Sunday.

Hayden Ezell said he was just finishing up some garage work with his dad on 2nd Avenue when they heard the plane go down.

“It sounded like they were flying in a circle or something,” he told the Herald. “It sounded like something was cutting out.” (A flight path available at flightaware.com shows that the plane was traveling southwest toward the airport but made at least one sharp turn to the north before it crashed).

Then, Ezell said, he and his father heard a loud crashing sound. The two immediately hit the road to try to find the plane. They headed to Willow Park, where they could see smoke north of the mobile home park.

“I was going to jump out then and start running,” Ezell said, “but my dad said, ‘Hey, let’s go around this way.’”

The two drove about one mile north on Highway 89 before they stopped and Ezell, with heavy snow falling, sprinted toward the smoke.

First responders struggled to find the plane in the heavy snow, and had some difficulty getting to it once they had a better idea of where it crashed. Smoke could be seen at times from Highway 89 and from Willow Park, but visibility was limited due to the storm.

“Access was kind of an issue … just finding it with the weather we had yesterday [was difficult],” Evanston Fire Department Cpt. Tim Overy said.

Officials eventually reached the crash site via a dirt road off Highway 89.

“It’s really not that difficult to get to other than [for] the old river channels and willows and stuff out there,” Uinta County Sheriff Doug Matthews said.

Meanwhile, Ezell was able to reach the plane on foot, though his heart sank when he realized there was nothing he could do to help the victims.

“I ran out there and was just hoping I could save somebody’s life,” he said, “but I got there and it was completely in flames so there wasn’t anything I could do.

Ezell said he tried to walk around the smoke and he was yelling, hoping someone could hear him. “I just thought maybe I could save somebody’s mom or dad or grandpa,” he said.

LaSalle said he was acquainted with William Patterson, but didn’t know him well.

“I remember him keeping an airplane here … more than 10 years ago,” LaSalle said. “He was here for a couple of winters in 2005-06, somewhere right in there, then I didn’t see him for two or three years. But every time he’d come back after a couple years he’d have a new plane.”

The plane Patterson was flying Sunday was a French model, LaSalle said, a Socata TBM700. He said it was a single-engine turbo prop plane that seated six people, a common type of owner-flown plane.

LaSalle said Sunday’s snowstorm likely played a part in the plane crash.

Officials with the Federal Aviation Agency and National Transportation Safety Board were scheduled to be in Evanston Monday, Cpt. Overy said, but their arrival was bumped to Tuesday due to poor weather.