Anyone suspecting that some strange people are flying around American skies had their concerns reinforced by a bizarre incident yesterday in which a man crashed a plane into his own house.
The weird happening occurred only a couple of days after a separate case, in which a disturbed airport ground handler stole a passenger aircraft (empty, apart from him) from Seattle’s SeaTac Airport and took off, crashing about an hour later on an island. See: Disturbed man steals passenger plane and takes off
The latest incident involved a small twin-engine Cessna plane, whereas the crash near Seattle was a full-size Q400, a regional turboprop passenger airliner of a type flown by many airlines worldwide, including Qantas.
Yesterday’s crash involved an experienced pilot named Duane Youd in the US state of Utah. Police say he flew a plane into his house a few hours after being arrested for assaulting his wife in a nearby canyon.
Youd, 47, and his wife had headed to the canyon to talk over their problems, authorities say, but the problems remained unresolved and witnesses called police to report that Youd was beating his wife. The couple had been drinking, reportedly.
Youd was charged on suspicion of domestic violence and released on bail. On release, he went straight to nearby Spanish Fork-Springville Airport, boarded the plane (which belonged to his employer) and took off.
Youd’s wife and a child were in the house when he flew into it but they both survived unharmed. The impact ripped off the front of the house, set the premises on fire and wiped out a car parked in front. The only person to die was Youd himself.
Duane Youd flew plane into his own house
The US Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.
They are also investigating the earlier crash in Washington, in which airport employee Richard Russell, 29, took off in a Horizon Air plane and performed a series of stunt loops before crashing on an island. Russell had no pilot’s licence and a local sheriff described it as a “joy ride gone terribly wrong”.
In both incidents, the only person to die was the pilot. But each could have been far worse.
Investigators say aircraft are vulnerable to such actions by airport personnel.
One of history’s most notorious plane thefts happened in Angola, Africa, in 2003, when an American pilot, together with an airline mechanic from the Congo, stole a Boeing 727 passenger jet, formerly operated by American Airlines.
Richard Russell stole passenger plane and crashed on an island
They took off and headed southwest over the Atlantic, disappearing into the sunset. The FBI and the CIA both investigated that incident, but neither the aircraft nor the two men were ever seen again.
Written by Peter Needham
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