Lehi » A small plane crashed Wednesday, narrowly missing a busy Interstate 15, critically injuring its pilot, a 52-year-old Sandy man.
The pilot, Mark Thorn, left St. George at 12:30 p.m. for a business meeting in Salt Lake City, according to Department of Public Safety spokesman Jeff Nigbur.
Thorn was taken to Intermountain Medical Center, he said. Thorn remained in critical condition Thursday morning with multiple traumatic injuries, according to hospital spokesman Jess Gomez.
According to Patrick Loturco, co-owner of the plane and a resident of Washington, Utah, Thorn spends works in real estate and spends significant time in St. George.
The plane had alternator, voltage operator and gear work done after the alternator failed a few weeks ago, Loturco said but no other problems were known.
Nigbur said the control tower at Salt Lake City Airport No. 2 in West Jordan received a distress call at 2 p.m., but he could not confirm if Thorn placed the call. Police were told at 2:02 p.m. that Thorn's plane crashed on a hill between I-15 and the Alpine southbound off-ramp near Lehi.
Thorn was flying under visual flight rules and did not file a flight plan. The crash damaged the nose, left wing and right side of the fuselage. Nigbur said bystanders were helping Thorn when police arrived but did not remove him from the wreckage.
Thorn is a licensed pilot and is "qualified to fly the plane," Loturco said, adding he recently completed additional flying time with an instructor.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration Registry, Thorn received his pilot's license Sept. 28, 2007, and is qualified to fly single and multiple-engine planes.
Loturco has owned the plane for seven years. Thorn bought half the ownership rights to the 1960 Beech fixed-wing, single-engine plane in October, which is normally stored at the St. George Airport.
Investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Transportation Safety Board and the Utah Highway Patrol are investigating the crash.
A preliminary report is expected late this week or early next, but the full investigation could take six months to a year, said Josh Cawthra, an NTSB aviation accident investigator.
