Plane crash lands on farmland in Hurricane

HURRICANE — A small aircraft with six occupants crash landed in a field off 920 West in Hurricane Sunday afternoon after the pilot performed an emergency landing when the plane caught fire during flight.

Shortly before 3 p.m. the plane was found crashed in the middle of a field of newly-planted grass and oats behind several homes. The pilot and five passengers were able to get out of the plane and were waiting for help several yards away, according to an eye-witness who was in the area but requested not to be identified.

“I ran toward the plane and saw smoke coming from the front of it and then saw that the passengers and pilot were able to get out and walk to the end of the field,” the witness said.

Two of the plane’s occupants were transported by responding ambulance crews to Dixie Regional Medical Center in stable condition with injuries that were not life-threatening, Hurricane Valley Fire Battalion Chief Nick Wright said.

The witness said that while checking on the group before help arrived, he learned from the pilot that the plane had been on a return flight to Salt Lake City carrying two adults and four teenagers.

During the flight, the plane reportedly experienced an electrical issue that started a fire near the front of the aircraft.

As the pilot was making an emergency landing into the field, the plane’s left wing struck an irrigation pipe that ran the entire length of the field. Once the pipe became caught on the wing, it was dragged several feet before the wing snapped off and became lodged in the mud alongside the pipe.

Upon landing, the aircraft was still burning. Firefighters from Hurricane Valley Fire District arrived on scene and extinguished the fire, Wright said.

The aircraft is a Piper Malibu Mirage, according to an Oct. 21 Flight Safety Foundation report.

Hurricane City Police officers also responded and secured the area. Representatives from the police department were not immediately available for additional information.

Incidents involving aircraft are typically turned over to the Federal Aviation Administration for investigation with oversight by the National Transportation Safety Board.

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