WEST JORDAN ,Utah -- Three members of a Boise family who were seriously hurt when their small plane crashed to the ground remain hospitalized in Salt Lake City.
West Jordan police say 56-year-old Steven Sedlacek, 57-year-old Kathleen Sedlacek and their 28-year-old daughter, Anna Looper, had flown to Utah to visit family in the area.
The trio had just taken off for their return trip Sunday morning when something went wrong.
Witnesses to the crash said the small aircraft was about 50 feet in the air when it banked sharply and plummeted to the ground with the engine on fire.
Onlookers David Lawrence and Robert Kelley saw the crash, and rushed to pull the three occupants from the wreckage. Steven Sedlacek was unconscious, and the two women were badly hurt, they said.
Sgt. Dan Roberts with West Jordan Police says there were about eight to ten witnesses, and several rushed in to help immediately.
"A couple of them were at a stoplight at an intersection and saw the airplane struggling to fly," Roberts said. When they saw it go down, they drove across the field right to the plane crash and when they arrived they saw flames in engine compartment."
A family member said all three suffered broken backs, and Steven Sedlacek suffered serious facial injuries. The family member also said she wanted to express thanks to the men who had pulled the injured people from the plane.
Both Steven and Kathleen Sedlacek were listed in critical but stable condition in a Salt Lake hospital Monday. Looper is in serious condition.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
"Witnesses say that the plane was struggling to gain altitude to get up to speed and ultimately went down," Roberts said. "Why that happened, we don't know yet. It will take some time, I'm sure, for the NTSB investigation to be in."
