A pilot left his Utah home "fully engulfed" after flying a plane into it early Monday with his wife and a boy inside, police said. The wife and boy escaped safely, but the pilot, 47-year-old Duane Youd, did not survive.
The crash came hours after Youd was involved in a domestic violence incident and booked into the Utah County Jail on Sunday evening, as Sgt. Noemi Sandoval of the Payson Police Department told journalists on scene after the incident.
Youd made bail Sunday night and returned to his home after midnight local time with an officer to gather belongings and his truck. Shortly after, at around 2:30 a.m. Monday, he flew the twin-engine Cessna 525 into the house, according to CBS News.
The plane belonged to a company for which Youd flew, the sergeant said, and the motive remained uncertain.
But he is an experienced pilot, and he flew from Spanish Fork Airport directly here into the home," Sandoval said.
Youd clipped a shed on his descent into the home, which police believe may have altered his trajectory.
We don't know what his ultimate goal was, whether he meant to hit it low like he did or whether he meant to hit it higher," Sandoval said, adding that the incident "could have been so much worse than what it was."
But the damage was largely contained to Youd's house, and officers arrived to find a plane partially inside the home.
The house was fully engulfed, so there really wasn't the ability to render any aid to the pilot," Sandoval said.
The fact that the wife and boy could exit the damaged house safely "was a miracle," she added. Neither were named, and it remained unclear whether the boy, described as a juvenile, was a son of the wife or Youd.
Sunday was the second time Youd was arrested on domestic violence charges in the past year, Sandoval said.
Sunday night's incident took place at the nearby American Fork Canyon, where the Youd and his wife were drinking, Sandoval said. Witnesses told police they saw Youd assault his wife before the Utah County Sheriff's Office took him into custody.
Plane crash in Payson, Utah after man flies into own home, police say