Memorial Services Set Saturday For Plane-Crash Victims Branaghs

Memorial services for Peter and Mona Branagh will be held on Saturday at in Danville at 1 p.m.

The Lafayette couple and business owners in central Utah over the weekend.

Mona ran the s, an interior design business in downtown Danville.

Peter was a developer in the Pleasanton and Lamorinda areas, and president of Layfayette-based California Bank of Commerce.

A note on the door at Pacific Bay Interiors said that the business would be closed until Thursday.

"Please bear with us as we mourn the tragic loss of Peter and Mona Branagh who passed away this weekend in an airplane crash," the note stated.

The couple was believed to have been flying from Utah to Aspen, Colorado, where they maintained a home, when their plane went down.

"We've lost a great director, a great man, a great friend," a California Bank of Commerce official said Monday. 

Initial reports indicated that a privately hired helicopter in Utah spotted debris in the Sevier County's Saleratus Canyon, about 30 miles southeast of Salina. Investigators then confirmed the wreckage as that of a Cirrus SR22 registered to Springhill Aviation LLC in Danville.

The plane was traveling from northern California to Aspen, Colo. when it was reported overdue and family members started calling for assistance. Radar tracking last placed the plane in Sevier County.

Civil Air Patrol search aircraft, as well as a plane from the Emery County Sheriff’s Office and private helicopters contracted by the family, joined in the search.

The Cirrus SR22 is equipped with the Cirrus Aircraft Parachute System (CAPS), an emergency parachute capable of lowering the entire aircraft and its occupants to the ground in the event of an engine failure.

It is not known if that system was deployed.

Community Presbyterian Church is located at 222 W El Pintado in Danville.