Roy • Natasha Pretti decided to press the brake pedal instead of the gas as a streetlight went from yellow to red Tuesday afternoon, even though she and her passenger were in a hurry to get back to work after lunch.
The car in front of her made it through the yellow light. As Pretti watched it continue north on 1900 West in Roy, she saw something falling from the sky.
Pretti and her passenger, Melanie Salazar, watched in disbelief as a single-engine plane clipped the car, crashed in the middle of the street and burst into flames.
The pilot and driver walked away after the plane crashed in the middle of 1900 West, near 4500 South.
“It looked like it hit the back of the car, and then it had to have gone down on the road because there was a short minute where you couldn‘t see anything,” Pretti said. ”There was the smoke instantly.”
When the light at 4800 South turned green, Pretti went through the intersection and pulled over. She instructed Salazar to get out of the car because ”the flames were so close” and she was afraid the aircraft might explode.
“If I would have gone through the light behind the car,” Pretti said, “we probably would‘ve been involved or maybe not even as lucky [as those involved] because it would have hit the front of my car.”
In the smoke, they saw another passerby run through the smoke and flames to help the pilot and driver get out of their vehicles, Pretti said.
The Bonanza aircraft had sat “for years” on the tarmac at the nearby Ogden-Hinkley airport, said airport manager Jon Greiner.
The pilot had just purchased the plane and was flying it somewhere for a maintenance check, Greiner said.
The plane had barely taken off from the airport flying south when it came down.
Roy police Sgt. Matthew Gwynn said the pilot — a 63-year-old man — was transported to a hospital “as a precaution.” So was the driver of a car hit by the plane, a 42-year-old woman, but both had been “walking around talking to police” at the scene, Gwynn said.
The Roy Police Department reported the crash occurred just before 1:40 p.m. Police closed 1900 West from 4400 South to 4800 South for several hours as investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration surveyed the scene.
Police were not immediately releasing the names of those involved, noting the FAA investigation.
BREAKING: we just witnessed a plane crash in Roy. Plane is fully engullfed, hit a car on 1900 West. @KUTV2News pic.twitter.com/jutotMpMTR
— Jeremy Harris (@JeremyHarrisTV) September 12, 2017
At least two television reporters, including KUTV reporter Jeremy Harris, reported on Twitter they were near the scene when the plane went down.
The news camera caught the plane as it flew low through the frame. Seconds later the KUTV crew heard an explosion when the aircraft hit the ground.
Pretti and Salazar said they didn’t hear a ”boom,” but that may have been because they were so shocked and full of adrenaline.
The flames were ”incredibly big,” Pretti said, and the plane ”disintegrated in minutes. It was unbelievable to see how fast it burned.”
Just after the plane crashed, Cami Hess told KUTV that she saw the plane leaving the runway. It was “teeter-tottering” and flying low, she said, and she knew it was going to crash.
“I can’t believe what I just saw,” she said. “… I’m in shock right now.”
Pretti and Salazar said they were shaking and crying as they filled out police reports.
”You just don’t think coming back from lunch that you’re going to see something like that,” Pretti told The Tribune.
Her husband passed away in November, she said, and it was ”scary” for her to think that her children were so close to losing both parents.
Salazar said she started praying when she saw the crash and felt a wave of relief when the officers told her everyone was OK.
“When you look at this, you think there‘s no way anyone could’ve come out of that,” Salazar said.
Hess lives in the area, she said, and was concerned that this is the second plane to crash near the Ogden-Hinkley airport in the last two months.
On July 26, two married couples from Weber County died when a small plane crashed on Interstate 15 near Riverdale Road, soon after taking off from the Ogden-Hinckley Airport.
— Tribune reporter Jessica Miller contributed to this story.