As the aircraft descended, pieces of the airplane, including portions of the right wing, started to fall off and one of the emergency flares on the wing ignited. At 12:27 p.m., the last radio transmission was heard from the airplane: "We may make it - approaching a strip." Accounts from observers state the airplane passed over the canyon mesa, approximately from the airstrip. With gusts from the canyon floor flowing down the side of the mesa, the crippled aircraft, only off the ground, was pulled out of control and crashed.