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ROY — Engine failure likely led to a fiery plane crash that left a pilot and a motorist on the ground with minor injuries earlier in the month, according to a preliminary report filed by the National Transportation Safety Board Friday.
The plane, a Beechcraft A24R piloted by a 63-year-old man, suffered a partial loss of engine power soon after its departure from Ogden-Hinckley Airport on Sept. 12, according to the NTSB report. The plane clipped a vehicle while the pilot attempted an emergency landing near 4500 South and 1900 West in Roy about a mile southwest of the airport.
The plane had recently come out of an inspection and the pilot conducted multiple engine runs on the ground. Indications were that everything was normal prior to taking off at about 1:36 p.m that day, according to the report. At about 200 feet in the air, the pilot began noticing the plane’s engine had stopped.
After several attempts at trying to get the engine to run properly, the pilot attempted an emergency landing on the road.
The man was able to escape the plane with the help of an off-duty Ogden police officer before it became in engulfed in flames. The driver of the vehicle the plane hit, 43-year-old Samantha Sandoval, walked away only with scrapes and a broken pinkie.
"The only word I can use to describe it is a miracle. Had it been another 3 to 5 feet forward, it would have been a completely different story,” her brother, Luke Draayer, told KSL the following day.
The report noted weather was clear that day. Audio from the airport’s control tower indicated nothing abnormal before the plane took off until another pilot radioed in a fire near the airport. Witnesses said they saw the plane struggling to gain altitude before it crashed.
Related:
'A miracle': Roy driver hit by airplane only broke pinkie
The family of a driver who heard a crash and later learned a plane landed on her car says it's a miracle she walked away with only scrapes and a broken pinkie.The crash was the second one involving a plane taking off from Ogden-Hinckley Airport in a two-month span. On July 26, four people were killed after the plane they were in crashed onto I-15 in Riverdale.
The cause of that crash remains under investigation.
