Utah plane crash: 3 dead, 2 injured after aircraft carrying six passengers crashes into West Jordan backyard
A small airplane crashed into a backyard in a residential Utah neighborhood on Saturday, July 25, afternoon. A video from the scene showed how the Piper PA-32 plane's crash set three houses on fire as it cannoned into a resident's backyard in West Jordan.
The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed six passengers were on board the plane when it crashed, according to a Daily Mail report. In the latest update from Fox 13 Now, three people were killed — the man piloting the plane, a woman and a 9-month-old girl. The same report also said that three others were on the plane: one woman who is in critical condition, a two-year-old boy in stable condition, and a 12-year-old who was injured but released.
The news first broke on social media with a tweet that read: "Jasson Soriano captured this video moments after the plane crashed. He was outside playing when he heard the crash and turned around to see the smoke and flames."
KUTV2 News reporter Jeremy Harris tweeted, "6 people on the airplane. Three homes hit. There are fatalities, not sure how many. The plane took off from South Valley Airport." He continued, "New images from the scene of the deadly plane crash in West Jordan. Emilee Bond just sent me the - she lives a few houses down and was just allowed to go back home."
A 30-second clip shows heavy smoke rising from the fire in the residential area. One of the neighbors took a mobile video of the horrific accident, in which she is saying, "I think a plane just crashed into their house. These are our neighbors.' As her voice trembled with fear, she apologized for the unsteady camera, "Sorry, I'm literally scared. I have to go downstairs and get our stuff together in case our house catches on fire." Here is the link to the video.
The tweets led to quite a bit of panic on social media. "No casualties from a small craft crash? With six people involved? That just seems odd to me. Wonder how that all went down?" one tweet read and another said, "No WORD on casualties... They probably haven't put out the fire yet. I would be surprised if anyone survived this." One Twitter user remarked: "Ironically this is very close to the epicenter of the big (ish) earthquake we had in March."
West Jordan police said that at the time of the crash, a person was inside his house and neighbors reportedly tried to rescue the injured homeowner. A number of ambulances, fire trucks, and other emergency vehicles reached the spot. Several medical helicopters were also employed to transport people from the fire.
The aircraft reportedly took off from the South Valley Regional Airport and went down only two miles away. In an interview with Desert News, Jordan's Mayor Dirk Burton said, "So they know each other extremely well and they’re very close-knit. So they were on top of it very quickly to go help out the residents that were affected." The National Transportation Safety Board and The Federal Aviation Administration are currently investigating the incident.