A single-engine Pilatus PC-12/47E turboprop airplane that crashed Friday afternoon in northeast Wyoming, killing all seven onboard, reported an equipment malfunction consistent with problems that model of aircraft is known to have, says a longtime pilot and crash investigator.

National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Keith Holloway said in a Saturday statement that preliminary information shows the plane went down after reporting an “autopilot issue during flight.”

The plane left Nebraska about midday Friday and was bound for Billings, Montana. It crashed about 1 p.m. near the Montana border in northern Campbell County.

Among those killed were three members of the Gospel Hall of Fame group The Nelons — co-founder Kelly Nelon Clark and husband Jason Clark, and daughter Amber Nelon Kistler. Also killed were Nathan Kistler, Melodi Hodges and Larry and Melissa Haynie.

That the plane reported an autopilot issue, along with violent pitching up and down before plummeting from an altitude of 26,000 feet, doesn’t surprise Dan Gryder, a pilot who investigates aircraft incidents and crashes. He reports his findings on his popular YouTube channel.

He told Cowboy State Daily he doesn’t know the exact cause of the crash, but based on the information the plane relayed before it went down, reported by Flight Aware, frantic whipping up and down at 300 mph would have caused the plane to break apart.

“Like, when you stick your hand out going down the road,” said Gryder, describing the air’s effect. “It forces your hand up with a lot of force.”

NTSB investigators are on site and will issue a preliminary report in about two weeks, according to agency protocol.

“The aircraft is in a remote location, and once (investigators) gain access, they will begin documenting the scene, examining the aircraft,” Holloway said in the Saturday statement. “The aircraft will then be recovered and taken to a secure facility for further evaluation.”

A Domino Effect

The force the plane could have been under could have started what Gryder called a domino effect of parts breaking off the plane, then more breakage.

Campbell County law enforcement scanner communications Friday afternoon responding to the crash attested to this as well. One agent noted finding plane parts in a larger perimeter than one would expect from just the impact of a crash.

The plane must have been breaking apart while still airborne, the agent said.

Photos of debris scattered over the area published by the Gillette News Record also seem to corroborate Gryder’s hypothesis.

Something may have gone wrong with the autopilot system just before the crash, said Gryder.

The Pilatus is a good plane, he said, but any one of four or five other companies could have manufactured the autopilot system, and he said he does not know which one built the one on this particular plane.

The autopilot is hooked to the elevator pitch trim servo, which moves a tiny tab that controls pitch — especially at high speeds, he said.

That tab can have an “absolutely huge” effect on the plane’s position. Gryder likened it to the power of the nation’s top executive.

“It’s amazing to me that the president of the United States can have that much power, but he does,” he said.

Once the plane starts to break apart, “you’re done,” he said. There’s no way to reverse the inevitable crash at that point.

The fall would have unfolded over about two violent minutes, and Gryder said it’s his opinion everyone on board would have been alive to experience it until impact.

Jet Fuel

The plane had fueled up in Nebraska shortly before flying over Wyoming. It was probably carrying around 300 gallons of jet fuel when it approached the Wyoming-Montana border, Gryder said.

The jet fuel crashing down into Wyoming’s sage lands helped spark a large fire that Campbell County authorities fought both via air and from the ground.

Firefighters were combatting the last smolders Saturday, the agency reported.

The Race Is Run

The Gaither Management Group, which handles The Nelons, acknowledged the deaths of the members in a statement late Friday.

“One of the best loved Gospel music families in America, The Nelons, were involved in a tragic, fatal plane crash on Friday afternoon on their way to join the Gaither Homecoming Cruise to Alaska,” the statement reads.

Autumn Nelon Streetman, the youngest daughter of Jason and Kelly Nelon Clark, was not on the plane and confirmed their identities in a separate statement.

“Thank you for the prayers that have been extended already to me, my husband, Jamie, and our soon-to-be-born baby boy, as well as Jason’s parents, Dan and Linda Clark,” her statement reads. “We appreciate your continued prayers, love and support as we navigate the coming days.”

The Nelons performed vocally powerful ballads and pop-bluegrass worship songs. Their YouTube profile features such works as a soulful cover of Casting Crowns song “The Only Scars In Heaven” — a song about looking forward to an eternity with loved ones in heaven.

They covered the popular Christian version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” in a campfire-side film featuring layered harmonies, and they tackled the folk classic “Gentle On My Mind” with a banjo.

The Nelons have won 10 Gospel Music Association Awards and was inducted into the GMA Hall of Fame in 2016.

Contact Clair McFarland at clair@cowboystatedaily.com

Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.

Ur-Energy Inc. said Friday that it’s raising $60 million in a public offering of stock to help pay for possible acquisitions of mining claims in the fragmented uranium industry and to ramp up development of mining projects.

Much of the U.S. uranium boom is happening in Wyoming.

“We are preparing our war chest so that we are ready for any opportunities. There is nothing that we can discuss publicly,” said John Cash, chairman, CEO and president of Casper-based Ur-Energy.

“There certainly is room for consolidation and efficiencies at the mine and at the corporate level,” Cash told Cowboy State Daily. “We think there are some strong possibilities for consolidation in the industry.”

The chief executive declined to discuss potential takeover targets or say whether his company had been approached with an offer.

“To be clear, we have no direct line or sight on anything. We are just being prepared in case anything becomes available,” Cash said.

In a filing made Friday, the company mentioned that it “frequently evaluates” acquisition opportunities to expand its portfolio of uranium projects.

“We are currently bidding on an acquisition opportunity involving a significant nonproducing uranium asset in the United States, although there is no certainty that we will continue to pursue that bid or be successful in acquiring the asset,” the filing stated.

No other details were made available.

Consolidation Picks Up

Evidence of consolidation in the uranium space in Wyoming and globally is beginning to emerge.

For instance, Australian-based Paladin Energy Ltd.’s $1.14 billion all-stock takeover of Canada’s Fission Uranium Corp. would make the combined entity the third largest publicly traded uranium producer in the world.

The combination, which was announced last month, is expected to close in the fall.

The business would rank the combined Paladin and Fission Uranium as third in output behind top producer Kazatomprom, which is controlled by the government of Kazakhstan, and Canada’s Cameco Corp., which has uranium positions throughout Wyoming and in the eastern neighboring state of Nebraska.

Kazatomprom is the world’s largest producer and seller of uranium.

Cameco’s facilities include the Smith Ranch-Highland in situ uranium mine near Glenrock and a satellite in situ uranium mine near Wright, as well as the Crow Butte in situ uranium mine near Crawford, Nebraska.

In-situ mining involves drilling with water derricks that can go down a few hundred feet into a bed of porous sandstone where there’s a very thick layer of uranium deposits to tap.

Cameco also operates uranium processing factories at Smith Ranch-Highland and Crow Butte where they can produce up to 7.5 million pounds of uranium yellowcake each year that, after further processing elsewhere, becomes fuel for nuclear reactors.

Besides the Paladin and Fission Uranium deal, two smaller uranium mining companies based in Canada merged in recent months.

ATHA Energy and Latitude Uranium completed their merger in March while IsoEnergy combined with Consolidated Uranium in December.

‘Little On The Larger Size’

Cash told Cowboy State Daily that his company’s $60 million stock offering is “a little on the larger size,” but there are larger mining companies that have raised several hundreds of millions of dollars in the uranium space.

Though smaller than Ur-Energy’s raise, Canadian Global Atomic Corp. made a $14.5 million (U.S.) stock sale to a group of private investors earlier this week.

The money is needed for a uranium project in the Republic of the Niger.

Over the past year, there has been a boom of uranium mining companies rushing to Wyoming to open mining and production facilities as the U.S. government has stepped in to embrace the industry’s strategic importance and push a “green revolution” agenda, according to Ur-Energy.

Ur-Energy anticipates using some of the proceeds from the public offering of 57.2 million shares to supplement working capital for the continued ramp-up at its Lost Creek mining and production site in Wyoming’s Red Desert and development at its Shirley Basin mine in central Wyoming.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, uranium companies rushed to Wyoming while others took their dormant operations out of caretaker status as part of a broader effort in the industry to develop an alternative enriched domestic uranium fuel supply.

The invasion of Ukraine led to growing nervousness in the U.S that the nation was relying too heavily on foreign sources, especially since Russia already was a major fuel supplier.

The U.S. took steps to alleviate over-dependence on Russia should the fuel supply line get cut.

Wyoming’s senior Sen. John Barrasso spearheaded an effort to ban Russian uranium imports that was signed into law by President Joe Biden in May.

Companies like Ur-Energy are being closely watched to see what kind of impact the resurgence in the industry might have on their bottom lines.

Pat Maio can be reached at pat@cowboystatedaily.com.