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A small plane made an emergency landing on I-15 NB in Payson Monday night, causing a string of crashes.

Courtesy Utah Highway Patrol

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A truck suffered collision damage after colliding with other vehicles when a small plane made an emergency landing on I-15 in Payson Monday night.

Courtesy Utah Highway Patrol

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A small plane made an emergency landing on I-15 NB in Payson Monday night, causing a string of crashes.

Courtesy Utah Highway Patrol

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One person is dead and several others are recovering from injuries after a plane made an emergency landing on northbound I-15 in Payson Monday night, leading to a chain reaction of vehicle crashes on the freeway, according to the Utah Highway Patrol.

Around 8:20 p.m. Monday,  a small plane experienced “some type of engine failure” and the pilot decided to land the aircraft on the northbound lanes of I-15 at milepost 250 near the Payson Main Street exit. Though the landing was successful, it was in a dimly lit area, according to UHP Sgt. Jeremy Matthews.

“The plane wasn’t very well lit and had several vehicles crash into the airplane and into each other at that time,” Matthews told reporters during a briefing Monday night.

In an update Tuesday afternoon, UHP said the pilot may have tried to land the plane at nearby Spanish Fork Airport but ultimately decided they wouldn’t make it so they landed on the freeway.

Authorities also revealed the small plane descended from Las Vegas, but its final destination is unknown.

UHP Lt. Cameron Roden told the Daily Herald a truck that failed to brake crashed into cars that had stopped upon seeing the plane on the freeway. A total of five vehicles were involved in the collision as well as the aircraft.

A pilot instructor and student pilot were on the small plane, neither of whom were injured. Four car occupants were transported with injuries ranging from minor to serious.

Roden said initially, at least one person was reported as sustaining critical injuries, but their condition was later downgraded to suffering serious injuries.

Later Tuesday afternoon, Roden confirmed that one person had succumbed to their injuries.

Darla Hathaway and her family were heading back home to Payson after spending the holidays in Southern Utah when they approached the multi-vehicle collision.

“When we got closer towards that Payson Main Street exit, we started seeing the flashing lights,” she described. “As we were (getting) super close to the exit, they got brighter, and brighter, we realized that they had blocked off the entire freeway.”

At first, Hathaway said they didn’t realize a plane had landed on the freeway as they could only see the row of cars and debris from those that crashed.

At one point, she could hear what sounded like a woman screaming, though it’s unclear if it was from the shock of what was happening or someone who had been injured.

Ultimately, Hathaway said they were able to get off the freeway at their destination exit after being stopped in traffic for a short time, but knows the situation could have been worse for her family.

In a social media post, Hathaway said if they had approached the area slightly earlier they may have been caught in the string of crashes as well.

“My kids were pretty scared, we were all just really scared, because we honestly didn’t know if the cars had been hit by the plane, which we thought that at first,” Hathaway told the Daily Herald. “Like we would have been probably involved in that if we would have been maybe 10 minutes faster.”

Northbound I-15 near 800 South in Payson was shut down for a time. Traffic was detoured through portions of Payson and Santaquin as troopers worked to clear the scene and remove the small airplane. All lanes were reopened by 11:30 p.m. Monday.

Roden said the aircraft was towed to a parking lot to be disassembled and eventually transported back to its owner’s property.

The Utah Highway Patrol and the National Transportation Safety Board are conducting an investigation into how the incident occurred.

“I’ve been almost 10 years on the job, it’s definitely not something that you expect to see,” Matthews said during the briefing. “We’re working through it just like we would any other crash.”