Four people are injured after a small passenger plane crashed into the front yard of a Colorado home.
On Friday, June 7, at around 9:30 a.m. local time, the airplane crashed into a residential neighborhood in Arvada. According to the Arvada Fire protection District, the plane was on fire after it crashed, and the Arvada Police Department (APD), as well as several other agencies, responded to put out the fire and provide emergency medical services to the four victims involved in the incident.
Arvada Police wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that the victims are two adults and two children.
Local Denver station FOX 31 reported that many of the neighborhood’s residents sprung into action after the crash, pulling the victims from the fire.
“We saw the explosion and the glow from the outside and said, ‘Well, wait a second,’ ” local resident Randy Hamrick told the outlet, noting that at first, he and his wife thought their house was collapsing.
“It felt like it was falling in. I mean, it was just that violent,” Hamrick added.
Evan Sherlock, another resident who witnessed the crash, told NBC affiliate 9 News that neighbors ran out to spray the fire with a garden hose and nearby construction workers also dashed over to try to help.
“I saw an airplane and its wings were tilted side to side,” Sherlock recalled, adding that the plane seemed to be leaking fuel. “Next thing I know, you see a giant plume of smoke, and I was there within a minute.”
According to a statement provided by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which investigates aviation incidents, the 1969 Beechcraft 35’s pilot had taken off from Centennial Airport, located south of Denver, and was seemingly headed to Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport, about 30 miles away.
During the flight, the pilot began communicating with local air traffic control to say that the plane was experiencing engine issues. About 15 minutes after takeoff, the pilot — for “unknown reasons” — “did not land at the airport and instead attempted a forced landing onto a road,” the NTSB added.
The organization is now investigating the crash, and the plane is set to be transported to an NTSB facility for evaluation, the agency said.
NTSB senior accident investigator Alex Lemishko told the Association Press that no one was at home when the plane crashed in the yard.
Lemishko also said the pilot was likely attempting to land on a roadway or nearby train tracks, which are acceptable landing places in an emergency. However, the Beechcraft 35’s wing may have hit a tree, causing it to skid down the road and veer into the yard.
“I’m sure what was going through the pilot’s mind was, ‘I see a roadway, I need to get this aircraft down, let’s give it a shot,’ ” the investigator told the AP.
The NTSB said that any witnesses who saw the accident or who have “surveillance video or other information that could be relevant to the investigation” are asked to contact the organization at witness@ntsb.gov.
