https://www.dailyitem.com/wire/4-injured-after-plane-crashes-in-arvada-colorado/article_c96ebe6d-b504-5204-a9c3-478f48e9cc2b.htmlDENVER — A small plane crashed on the front lawn of an Arvada home Friday morning, police said.
Arvada police said four people — two adults and two children — were taken to the hospital after the plane crashed in a neighborhood near Oberon Road and Carr Street.
A photo posted by the Arvada Police Department shows wreckage from the plane strewn across the front lawn of a home on Oberon Road, next to a red pickup truck the plane collided with during the crash.
Arvada Fire Protection District crews responded to an aircraft emergency around 9:30 a.m. Friday and the plane was on fire when crews arrived on scene, Fire Operations Chief Matt Osier said.
Although the fire department originally reported a potential structure fire associated with the crash, Osier said the flames were contained to the plane and did not spread to the surrounding homes. He said it was unclear if the fire started before or after the plane crashed. “I heard screaming that I’ll never forget for the rest of my life,” said Arvada resident Kent Murray, who lives just across the railroad tracks from the crash site.
Oberon Road runs parallel to the train tracks, and the crash site is near where the road intersects with Carr Street.
Murray heard the plane crash from inside his home, but said he first assumed it was a car crash. He went outside and saw that a small, white plane had landed on Oberon Street and slid into a red pickup truck.
The plane — a single-engine Beechcraft 35 — was carrying four people, said Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson Tammy Jones.
Jones confirmed the plane departed from Centennial Airport but the pilot’s intended destination was not available.
The photo from the police department shows a propeller, possibly from the nose of the small plane, lodged in the truck’s front right tire. Soot and other debris is scattered across the sidewalk, the side of the truck and the lawn.
A man and a woman inside the truck were severely injured, Murray said. He saw the pair carried to an ambulance. It’s unclear if the other two people taken to hospitals were on the street or in the plane. Noah Taht, a flight instructor at the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Jefferson County, was in the air when he heard the pilot of the Beechcraft Bonanza call out over the radio that his plane was losing oil pressure and he was having engine trouble. The pilot called out an emergency declaration and didn’t think he could make it to the airport.
“He said he was going to have to put it down somewhere and that’s the last I heard from him,” Taht said.
Taht came to the crash site after he landed to see what happened. He said the pilot did a good job of avoiding houses and powerlines.
“He put it down exactly where he was supposed to,” Taht said.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA will investigate the crash.
