Breaking: 1 dead after small plane crashes, burns in Roy neighborhood

Emergency crews are on the scene of a small plane crash in Roy. Photo: Gephardt Daily/Nancy Van Valkenburg
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ROY, Utah, Jan. 15, 2020 (Gephardt Daily) — One man is dead after a small plane crashed into a neighborhood in Roy Wednesday afternoon.

The small plane crashed in a neighborhood in the area of 1805 W. 5050 South and caught fire.

Roy City Police Department Sgt. Matthew Gwynn said a 64-year-old male pilot left Bountiful Airport at approximately 3 p.m. and was heading to Ogden. He was due to land at approximately 3:11 pm. That was also the time the plane crashed, Gwynn said.

The pilot is deceased and officials are currently in the process of notifying family members.

The cause of the crash is not clear at this time. Gwynn said the pilot was observed flying north on I-15 in a twin-engine Cessna and according to eyewitnesses the plane banked left and the landing gear was down.

“The wing hit the top of one of these town homes and then the plane came down into the parking lot,” Gwynn said. “It looks like it slid into the parking area by the side of one of the town homes.” A second town home was damaged by fire.

No one else was hurt as a result of the crash.

Resident Kallan Tingey, a resident of Farr West who works at Hill Air Force Base, was on his way home from work when he saw the crash. “I was on the freeway headed north and I saw a plane come over and he was crabbing sideways which it looked like he had engine failure; he had two engines, he was a twin. I thought he was going to crash right into the freeway but the second he crossed the freeway he turned right upside down and went straight into these apartment buildings so we came over here to see what had happened.”

He added that the plane appears to have missed the houses and only clipped a fence.

“After he hit the ground I saw probably 50 feet of fire come up,” Tingey added.

John Cypers, who lives across the road from the incident and is a pilot, said he heard the sirens and came out of his house and said he could see black smoke, then there was a huge explosion. He said there have been four plane crashes in the area in the last three years.

1 COMMENT

  1. Sad … my guess is asymmetric thrust with stall… more training in single engine procedures especially with non counter rotating twins would be a welcomed move..

    Very sad

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