At least one person was killed when a small plane crashed into a home in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, on Saturday afternoon, setting it on fire, according to officials.
The aircraft, a small executive transport plane capable of carrying six people, collided with the home around 12:20 p.m. local time while en route to Anoka County-Blaine Airport in Minneapolis from Des Moines International Airport in Iowa, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
At a news conference, Brooklyn Park Fire Chief Shawn Conway confirmed that no one survived the small plane crash. It is unclear how many people were on the plane, but officials have confirmed at least one death, Brooklyn Park city spokesperson Risikat Adesaogun told CNN.
There were no fatalities reported from inside the house. Video footage from the scene shows the home completely engulfed in flames, with fire officials telling several onlookers over a loudspeaker: “The house is on fire. Please move back from the house near the fire!” Several fire trucks were on the scene.
Whe fire department arrived on the scene, the incident commander discovered a “fully involved structure fire,” Conway explained. Ten thhe aircraft was not discovered until after the fire was extinguished, he added.
“What we are asking for right now is that the neighborhood give us a little more time to process the scene and work through it. There were no occupant fatalities. “Everybody got out of the house safely,” Conway said.
A Ring camera captured the moment the plane appears to fall out of the sky and crashes into a neighborhood. Cindy Leitschuh told CNN that her family had unknowingly captured video of the plane.
Her husband, Curt, and their 8-year-old son were out front playing catch when their Ring camera went off.
“My 8-year-old son actually saw the plane going up and down,” Leitschuh said. “He assumed it was a drone. And then he says, ‘Yeah, I saw this plane going up and down, left and right, and then I saw a bunch of black smoke.’ So my husband went to look at the Ring and discovered it was on our Ring.
In a statement on X, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said: “My team is in contact with local officials on the scene in Brooklyn Park, and we are closely monitoring the situation. I am grateful to the first responders for answering the call.”
During the press conference, Brooklyn Park Mayor Hollies Winston thanked Walz for “supporting us and providing resources to our city.”
“I will say that as a community and as a city, we are very much going to surround the families that have been affected by this,” Winston told the media.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are conducting an investigation, the FAA stated. The NTSB will lead the investigation and provide any updates.
The agencies are on their way to Minnesota on Saturday and will be “carrying out some of their duties as the investigation goes on,” according to city spokesperson Adesaogun, who adds that more information will most likely be available on Sunday.
Brooklyn Park, a suburb of Minneapolis, is located approximately 11 miles north.
