Man crashes plane into own home after fight with wife

A Utah man has died after flying a light plane into the front of his own home, shortly after an altercation with his wife.

Police say the pilot, identified as Duane Youd, appears to have deliberately crashed the aircraft into the front of the home, where his wife and a child were sleeping around 2:30am, local time.

“Both survived the incident, which caused the front of the house to become fully engulfed in flames,” The Independent says.

“We don’t know what his ultimate goal is, whether he meant to hit it low like he did or he meant to hit it higher,” Payson Police Sgt. Noemi Sandoval said.

CBC News says that the plane, a twin-engine Cessna 525, “belonged to Youd's employer”, and that he was an “experienced pilot”. It remains unclear if Youd had authorisation to be flying the aircraft at the time of the crash.

Youd had been arrested earlier in the evening after he was seen assaulting his wife in a nearby canyon, where they had gone to talk about their marital problems.