Pilot targets own home

A PILOT stole a plane before deliberately flying it into his own house after being released on bail for assaulting his wife.

Duane Youd, 47, an experienced pilot, died when he crashed the twin-engine Cessna 525 into his home near Salt Lake City.

His wife and child were inside the home at the time but were not hurt despite the front part of the two-storey house being engulfed in flames.

Youd had been arrested on Sunday evening after witnesses called police to report he was assaulting his wife, Utah County Sheriff’s Sergeant Spencer Cannon said.

Within hours of being released on bail, Youd took off in the plane from the Spanish Fork-Springville Airport, about 25km north of his house.

He flew directly to his neighbourhood and crashed.

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