HOOPER — At approximately 3:44 p.m. Thursday, a single-engine ultralight plane crash landed in Hooper with one passenger being taken to the hospital as a precautionary measure. The two passengers were an adult male, who was piloting, and an adult female, according to the Weber Fire District.

Bryant Garrett, the Ogden-Hinckley Airport manager, said the plane was a white Kitfox aircraft. He believes it took off from the Ogden airport, as it matched a plane that departed from there approximately 15-20 minutes before the crash was reported.

The two attempted to land in a cleared field in Hooper, according to David Reed, fire marshal for the fire district. Kitfox planes are designed to take off and land in short distances on a variety of surfaces.

Reed added that the plane flipped when the pilot attempted to land, leading to a head injury for the female passenger. There was no subsequent fire or additional injuries.

Just after noon Thursday, the Ogden City Fire Department was dispatched to a separate crash at the airport.

According to a news release from Deputy Chief Mike Slater, “Fire units arrived on the scene to find a 2-passenger aircraft that had come to rest on the runway. The pilot was the only passenger on the plane and was uninjured and outside of the aircraft (upon) our arrival.”

Garrett characterized what happened as an “aircraft incident.”

He was told that the plane was operated by a student pilot and that the only damage was minor and to the landing gear.

The plane did veer off the runway during the landing, shutting down the runway for several hours and breaking an airfield sign, Garrett said. He added that there would have been more serious issues had a commercial airplane been scheduled to land.

“To give an equivalent of it, let’s just say you’re on I-15 and had a flat tire but it broke the rim. So you can’t really tow it, not easily, and it’s blocking a lane and nobody can use that lane,” Garrett said. “It’ll be costly. I don’t want to make light of that at all; it’s going to cost somebody a lot of money. But the big takeaway is nobody was hurt.”

Garrett said incidents like this occur about two or three times each year.

The incidents happened two days after both the Ogden City Fire Department, Weber Fire District and other local agencies participated in a simulated plane crash emergency drill at the Ogden airport.

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