Utah Plane Crash: 2 Couples Leaving On Vacation ID'd As Victims

SALT LAKE CITY, UT —Two Utah couples leaving on vacation were killed when their small plane crashed on a northern Utah highway, snarling traffic and leaving behind blackened wreckage, authorities and friends said.

Those killed in the Wednesday crash were Layne Clarke, 48, and his 42-year-old wife, Diana Clarke, along with Perry Huffaker, 45, and his 42-year-old wife, Sarah Huffaker, the state Department of Public Safety said.

Layne Clarke was piloting the Beech A36 Bonanza as the two couples departed for a trip, friend Jeff Henderson said. Clarke was a business owner who had gotten his pilot's license about five years ago, he said. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating why the plane crashed shortly after takeoff from a municipal airport in the city of Ogden, about 40 miles north of Salt Lake City.

No injuries were reported on the ground Wednesday. The crash closed most lanes of Interstate 15 in Riverdale, about 35 miles north of Salt Lake City.

Truck driver Obdulio Ruiz told the Standard-Examiner newspaper in Ogden that it appeared the pilot was trying to land the plane on the interstate just before the crash.

Photos credit: Sarah Welliver /Standard-Examiner via AP; Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP