A man in Utah flew a small Cessna plane into his house while his wife and son were still inside. He was arrested under the charges of domestic violence previously. The incident took place on Monday, but the police said that the cause was a domestic dispute between Duane Youd, who is a professional airplane pilot, and his wife. The incident happened near American Fork Canyon about 35 miles south of Salt Lake City. On Sunday evening, the Utah County Sheriff Office received a call from many witnesses about a man hitting a woman. The police patrol took Youd into custody. He and his wife had been drinking while an argument broke out and he started beating her.
Duane Youd made bail on Monday morning between 1230am, and 1am and asked the police if he can return to his home in Payton, Utah and pick up some of his items from there. He was escorted there in a police car. After picking his things, he headed for Spanish Fork Airport, got in the Cessna 525 Citation Jet which he usually flies for a company and flew back to Payton with the intention of crashing it into his house.
A neighbor described the incident saying, “It just got lower and lower. I said ‘Oh my gosh it’s going to hit the mountain. It’s going to hit the mountain. It’s getting lower.’ You can just see it getting lower. All of a sudden a huge ball of orange fire. I couldn’t believe it.” Youd’s wife and son were inside the house when he crashed down into it. Wife and son managed to get out before the fire spread. Investigators said that he clipped a neighboring shed before he hit his own house which may have altered the trajectory of the plane.
Sargent Neomi Sandoval of the Payson Police Department said, “We don’t know what his ultimate goal was, whether he meant to hit it low as he did or whether he meant to hit it higher.” The incident could have been much worse than it was and it was a miracle that the boy and his wife remained safe and escaped the house in time. The front of the house is still intact despite being burnt severely. The plane was destroyed, and Duane Youd lost his life. The court record shows that last month he agreed to attend marriage and family counseling sessions for six months as a part of a plea agreement after another domestic violence incident occurred.
