Authorities Give Update on Brooklyn Park Plane Crash
A small plane crash-landed into a car Tuesday morning on a busy Twin Cities highway, injuring the pilot and the driver. Brooklyn Park police say it happened at about 10:32 a.m. in the southbound lanes of Highway 81 (Bottineau Boulevard) near West Broadway Avenue, about 6 miles northwest of Minneapolis.
Police reported that the plane was approaching Crystal Airport when it lost power. The pilot then made an emergency landing about 2.5 miles northwest of the airport. The plane clipped several power lines on its way down before colliding with a car. The driver and pilot suffered minor injuries.
“The fact that (the pilot) impacted one vehicle and was able to put the aircraft down… is probably a testament to his skills as a pilot,” said Brooklyn Park Fire Chief Shawn Conway.
WCCO confirmed the plane, a Piper Cherokee, is owned by Thunderbird Aviation. Flight data shows the single-engine Piper Cherokee took off from Crystal Airport at about 7:15 a.m. It flew to South Dakota and back.
WCCO obtained air traffic control recordings between the tower and the pilot, in which the tower asked the pilot if they had lost power and the pilot responded that they couldn’t make it to the runway.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating. Southbound Highway 81 was closed for several hours and reopened late Tuesday afternoon.