Pilot killed in crash flew plane into his own home

PAYSON — Two residents of a house have escaped, apparently unharmed, after a small plane crashed into that home near the mouth of Payson Canyon, killing the pilot.  Officials on scene confirm the pilot flew the plane into his own home.

Payson police say it happened around 2:30 a.m. Monday.

Police confirmed Monday morning that Duane Youd had been arrested on suspicion of domestic violence assault just a few hours before the crash.  They say witnesses saw him punching his wife while they were in American Fork Canyon.

Youd was allowed to bail himself out of the Utah County Jail and picked up some items from his house before he went to the Spanish Fork Airport.  From there, he’s accused of taking the Cessna 525 jet and crashing it right at his front door.

#BREAKING: Payson PD says Duane Youd was arrested for a domestic violence incident involving his wife just a couple of hours before he flew a plane into his home.

He died. His wife and a juvenile inside the home escaped without injury. https://t.co/oH2nrOcXo2 @KSL5TV pic.twitter.com/U18t7ttfe5

— Caitlin Burchill (@newsyCaitlin) August 13, 2018

We now know that the two people who escaped from the home were Youd’s wife and a juvenile.

Payson Police Sergeant Noemi Sandoval says, “A couple of people who were in the home were able to exit the home without injury. They were obviously shook up.”

From video streamed by KSL TV’s Chopper 5, you can see the plane, white in color, is smashed and burned, and that the front of the home and its garage appear to have suffered severe damage. A car rests on its side, apparently flipped over by the impact.

Yellow tape ropes off the area around the home as crews remain on scene investigating.

Payson Police just let us closer to the scene on 600 E, Canyon Rd. A family across the street sweeps up after it looks like the plane clipped their garage roof as it approached the other home. #KSLAM @KSL5TV pic.twitter.com/56QgsXJSvm

— Caitlin Burchill (@newsyCaitlin) August 13, 2018

Only one other home sustained any damage.   Sandoval says they feel lucky no one else was hurt and that the damage caused by the crash wasn’tmuch worse.

“With the amount of fire that was generated by the impact, it could have spread to other homes,” Sandoval says.

A car that was parked  on the street directly in front of the house might have been a reason why the damage to the house wasn’t more severe.  Sandoval speculates that the car absorbed a large part of the momentum from the plane.

“I gather that if there had not been that car, maybe, to break some of that momentum, maybe it would have gone further in.  I don’t know,” Sandoval says.

Youd’s biological children are painting a different picture of their father.

“He was everything but a [person who would get] a domestic violence charge,” according to his daughter, Joslyn Youd.

She says he was well-known for being a kind man who would do what he can to help others.

Youd adds, “He was known everywhere we went.  Even traveling to different countries, we would run into people that he knew.”

Motive for the crash has not been established, but, Youd says her father and her step-mother were having serious marital problems.

“He told me one time that if there was ever the slightest chance that she still loved him, he would stay with her,” Youd says.

CONTRIBUTING: Becky Bruce, Josh Tilton, Sheryl Worsley