The pilot was the sole fatality and there were no other injuries after a plane crashed through the roof of a Brooklyn Park house on Saturday, officials said in a press conference.
One person inside the home was able to escape without injuries. A second resident was not home at the time, Brooklyn Park Fire Chief Shawn Conway said Sunday.
The pilot was the sole occupant in the plane.
The crash occurred about 12:20 p.m. Saturday near the intersection of 109th Avenue North and Noble Parkway.
The identity of the pilot will be released by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s office, said Dr. Jessica Campbell, a forensic anthropologist at the office.
The house was completely destroyed by the plane landing on the roof and plummeting into the basement, starting a fire that consumed the house, Conway said.
A neighboring home suffered damage to its siding and some homes have debris from the crash in their yards, he said.
All utilities have been restored to the remaining homes in the neighborhood, Conway said, noting that crews will still be working in and around the neighborhood for some time.
The investigation into the crash has been formally turned over to the National Transportation Safety Board, he said.
The NTSB’s focus on Sunday was to document the accident site before removing the airplane, said Tim Sorensen, aviation accident investigator with the NTSB.
“We will recover the aircraft this afternoon and it will be taken to a location where a more detailed investigation can be done,” he said.
The damage to the aircraft was great. “Suffice it to say it’s severe, it’s significant,” Sorensen said.
The investigation is just getting started, he said, so “we don’t have a lot of answers right now.”
As part of its investigation, the NTSB will look at the weather, the pilot’s experience, and the maintenance and status of the aircraft. A preliminary report on the accident will be released in 10 days to two weeks.
The report “will not have a cause associated with it but will have factual information we have determined at that time,” Sorensen said.
The fire the crash sparked has provided “additional challenges” to investigators, he said.
Sorensen said the NTSB has not confirmed the origin of the plane or its final destination.
However, the Federal Aviation Administration said Saturday that the SOCATA TBM7 crashed after leaving Des Moines International Airport in Iowa and was headed to Anoka County-Blaine Airport.
“There’s plenty of those types of aircraft out there and they fly safely every day, every accident is unique,” Sorensen said. “We look at the unique circumstances and document every accident. That is the process we are involved in right now.”
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