Small plane misses cars but kills 4 aboard in highway crash
SALT LAKE CITY — A small plane crashed on a Utah highway Wednesday, killing two couples heading for a vacation but narrowly missing cars when it barrelled across the lanes through a gap in traffic.
The plane went down shortly after takeoff from a municipal airport popular with private pilots north of Salt Lake City, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer said. No injuries were reported on the ground after it snarled traffic and left behind blackened wreckage.
Layne Clarke, 48, was flying his wife and two friends as they departed for a vacation, said family friend and colleague Jeff Henderson. Clarke owned an automotive paint business and had gotten his pilot’s license about five years ago after a friend got him interested in aviation, he said.
Clarke was a “very energetic, wonderful man,” Henderson said.