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A small plane crashed onto Interstate 15 in Utah on Wednesday afternoon around 1 p.m., shutting down all traffic northbound and leaving just one lane open southbound. The crash happened near Riverdale Road in Weber County. Witnesses said the plane just seemed to nosedive from the sky. All four people on the plane died, but no drivers on the interstate were injured.
The names of the four people who were on the plane have just been released by the Department of Public Safety, KUTV reported.
There were two married couples on the plane. Layne Clarke, 48, and Diana Clarke, 46, from Taylor, Utah were two of the victims. One friend said on Facebook that Layne was a member of Weber High School Class of 1987.
The other two victims were Perry Huffaker, 45, and Sarah Huffaker 42, a married couple from West Haven, Utah. One friend of Perry’s wrote on Facebook: “We just work[ed] the rodeo on Monday and you were telling us how proud you were of a good job we did.. this is such a sad tragedy.”
Officials have not yet identified who was flying the plane or what caused the crash.
The plane took off from Ogden-Hinckley Airport, KSL reported. It crashed just a half-mile away from where it took off.
One witness told KUTV that the plane was traveling south and it was about 300 feet in the air, trying to gain altitude, when the engine made a loud sound and dropped vertically. April Demetropolis told KSL that the plane just seemed to come out of nowhere and nose-dived into the middle of the freeway.
Randy Paulson, who witnessed the crash, told KUTV: “It was a big black solid red ball of fire. There’s no way you could’ve survived it.”
All northbound lanes were shut down after the crash, causing traffic to be backed up for miles.
Expect huge delays on I-15 in Weber County. Views from @KSLChopper5 show northbound traffic backed up for miles near milepost 339 @KSL5TV
Learn more about the crash in Heavy’s story below:
