United Airlines Flight 2860

United Airlines Flight 2860 was a scheduled domestic cargo flight in the United States from San Francisco, California, to Chicago, Illinois, with an intermediate stop added at Salt Lake City, Utah. On December 18, 1977, operated by one of the airline's Douglas DC-8 Jet Traders, registration N8047U, the flight was in a holding pattern in Utah and crashed into a mountain in the Wasatch Range near Fruit Heights. All three crew members, the only occupants of the plane, were killed in the accident.

Late on Saturday, December 17, 1977, United Airlines Flight 2860 departed from San Francisco at 23:17 PST . The three-man crew consisted of Captain John Fender ; First Officer Phillip Modesitt ; and Flight Engineer Steve Simpson . The intermediate stopover in Salt Lake City had been added several hours earlier. When the flight was near Salt Lake City, less than an hour later at 01:11 MST, the crew radioed the airport that they were having electrical trouble, and requested holding clearance to give them time to communicate with company maintenance. Clearance was approved, and the flight entered a holding pattern.

Wikipedia