Names of final victims in Air Force crash released

Jace Radke

Wednesday, March 24, 2004 | 9:59 a.m.

Military authorities on Tuesday released the final two identities of people killed in last week's crash of an Air Force plane on the Nevada Test and Training Range.

Five people were killed when the plane crashed March 16 about 125 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Identified Tuesday were David D. Palay Sr., 57, of Las Vegas, the pilot of the Beechcraft KA 1900 and a civilian employed by the Air Force's Materiel Command; and Michael A. Izold of Las Vegas.

Derrick L. Butler, 40, Daniel Smalley, 46, and Roy Van Voorhis, 56, all of Las Vegas, were the other passengers aboard the aircraft when it crashed. Those three and Izold were employees of JT3 LLC, a Las Vegas-based contracting company.

Officials at JT3 have repeatedly refused to comment on the crash or the employees who were killed.

Paley, a Wisconsin native, was a Vietnam War veteran, a lifelong aviator and an airline transport pilot, according to information his family provided to Palm Mortuary.

The plane was flying what Nellis Air Force Base officials called a routine support mission when it crashed for unknown reasons about 5 a.m. The plane had taken off from a remote location on the 2.9 million-acre Nevada Test and Training Range and was headed for a landing strip outside Tonopah on the northern edge of the range.

Nellis officials said the cause of the crash is unknown and that a safety investigation board is looking into it and will probably release a report in the coming months.

Beechcraft KA 1900s are twin-engine turbo-prop aircraft that can hold as many as 19 passengers.

Services for Palay are set for 1 p.m. Saturday at Christ the King Catholic Church, 4925 S. Torrey Pines Drive. He is survived by his wife, Pamela of Las Vegas; sons David Jr. of Lake Charles, La., and Chris of Las Vegas; sister Susan Lawyer of Clermont, Fla.; and two grandchildren.

Palay's family requests that anonymous donations be made to the American Diabetes Association or the Public Broadcasting System in lieu of flowers.

Services for Izold are pending.

Air Force Materiel Command is headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, and is charged with developing and acquiring products and technology, including new weapons systems, for use by the Air Force. The command includes a work force of about 90,000 military and civilian employees.

According to JT3's website, the company assists customers and other contractors in the planning, preparation and execution of test projects and training missions.

EG&G Technical Services Inc. and Raytheon Technical Services Co. formed JT3 in response to the Defense Department's merger of the engineering and technical support management of several Western ranges, according to the website.