Conditions improve for Idaho family hurt in W. Jordan plane crash

Conditions for three members of a Boise, Idaho family injured in a weekend Utah plane crash had improved on Monday, with all now expected to survive.

West Jordan Police Sgt. Dan Roberts said the pilot, 56-year-old Steven Sedlacea, and his wife, Kathleen Sedlacea, 57, were in critical condition but had been stabilized. Their daughter, Anna Looper, 28, had been upgraded to serious condition.

The family's aircraft took off from South Valley Regional Airport about 9 a.m. Sunday but crashed soon after in a soccer field near 8000 S. 4570 West. Roberts said the family likely owed their lives to witnesses who saw the crash and rushed to pull the three from the wreckage before it burst into flames.

Video of the crash, uploaded to YouTube, showed smoke billowing from the crash site. Firefighters eventually extinguished the blaze.

The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the cause of crash, but it appeared the pilot father was attempting to make an emergency landing.

Utah National Guard Sgt. Robert Kelley saw the plane first bank left. "[He] put his landing gear down, and that's when I knew he was going down," he told KUTV News.

"So I hit the gas. There wasn't any traffic. I floored it out to the soccer field. While I'm doing this, I'm calling 911, letting them know they're going to have a plane crash here on the soccer field," Kelley added.

David Lawrence, a former Bluffdale volunteer firefighter, was driving nearby and saw the plane go down, too. Along with Kelley and another, unidentified man, he helped pull the family from the ruined aircraft.

Police and firefighters soon arrived and the family was taken to Intermountain Medical Center in Murray.

remims@sltrib.com

Twitter: @remims