Seattle Bank CEO Survives After Private Jet Crashes on Way to Rose Bowl

Jan. 4—Brent Beardall, president and CEO of Seattle-based WaFd Bank, is lucky to be alive after the small jet he was on crashed seconds after takeoff Monday in Utah, killing the pilot and closing the Provo Municipal Airport for several days.

Beardall, 51, of Sammamish, "definitely was being watched over at some higher level," said Provo Airport Director Brian Torgersen, who said the small jet with Beardall and three others aboard slammed nose-first into the runway after a wingtip appeared to touch the ground.

Nathan Ricks, 62, a well-known Utah businessman and WaFd client, was piloting the Embraer EMB-505 Phenom 300 and died in the crash.

The cockpit where Beardall was seated, next to Ricks was "just mangled — I mean, it's wires and metal," said Torgersen, who was among the first to reach the shattered jet after the 11:39 a.m. crash.

Ricks' wife, Joyce Ricks, 56, and WaFd executive Dane Margetts, 36, suffered minor injuries, according to information from WaFd and a Facebook post by Provo city officials. The four were reportedly flying to Chino, California, to attend the Rose Bowl in nearby Pasadena, Torgersen said.

Beardall underwent surgery at Utah Valley Hospital in Provo where he was taken with severe injuries, including broken bones and cuts, said Brad Goode, spokesperson at WaFd, formerly known as Washington Federal.

"The surgeons at the hospital said they have never seen anybody with that level of damage survive," said Goode. "And he was conscious and speaking when he was admitted."

A CT scan showed no damage to Beardall's brain or vital organs. Beardall, who was scheduled for another surgery Wednesday afternoon, is expected to make a full recovery, Goode said.

Cathy Cooper, executive vice president and chief consumer banker at WaFd, will fill in during Beardall's absence, Goode said. WaFd has 72 branches in Washington and 129 spread across Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico, Idaho, Utah, Nevada and Texas.

Beardall joined WaFd in 2001 and became CEO in 2017. He helped steer the 105-year-old bank through the region's recent growth surge as well as the economic disruption of the pandemic. Last year, WaFd posted the best yearly results in its history, breaking records in everything from profit to loan volumes, in part as the bank has stepped up its loans to businesses.

WaFd officials were quick to emphasize that while Beardall's full recovery could be protracted, his absence from work duties was expected to be relatively brief and posed no challenges to bank operations. "This is just a few weeks where he's recovering, where Cathy's just assuming his duties," Goode said.

"We have every confidence in our strong management team's ability to move forward with the execution of the Bank's strategy," added WaFd board chair Stephen Graham in a statement Tuesday.

Most recently, that strategy has included an ambitious regional expansion with the acquisition of California-based Luther Burbank Savings. The $654 million, all-stock deal was expected to close later this year and create a regional bank with $29 billion in assets.

Shares in WaFd were trading at $32.87 as markets closed Wednesday afternoon, down around 2.6% since the morning after the crash. Shares across the U.S. banking sector were up around 1.7% over the same period, according to the Dow Jones U.S. Banks Index.

The National Transportation and Safety Administration expects to issue a preliminary report into the cause of the crash in two to three weeks and a spokesperson had only a few details Wednesday.

Based on witness accounts and runway markings, the twin-engine jet appears to have "banked hard left" shortly after takeoff and its "left wingtip drug on the runway," after which the "nose hit the ground ... just off the runway," said Torgersen, who was out plowing snow at the time of the crash.

Although Torgersen said he didn't see the wingtip hit, evidence of a strike was "pretty obvious on the runway. You can see the scrape marks and then see ... where the nose of the plane hit the dirt ... and left a pretty good-sized crater."

Torgersen said it had been snowing earlier, but the runway had been cleared. There were just "light flurries" at the time of the crash, with almost no wind. He said the airport, Utah's second-busiest, expected to reopen later Wednesday.

In statements and comments, WaFd officials described Beardall being in "good spirits and charging ahead." Goode speculated that Beardall's build — "6-foot-4 and solid" — may have helped him survive the crash.

Beardall himself may have been closer to the mark. In his LinkedIn profile, the banker had written, "I feel like I am the luckiest person alive."

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