A small airplane landing on Monday (August 11, 2025) at a Montana airport crashed into parked aircraft, triggering a big fire however inflicting no critical accidents, authorities mentioned.
The single-engine airplane carrying 4 individuals was trying to land at about 2 p.m. at the Kalispell City Airport, in keeping with Kalispell Police Chief Jordan Venezio and the Federal Aviation Administration.
A preliminary investigation confirmed the pilot misplaced management, crashing onto the runway earlier than the airplane struck a number of parked aircraft, igniting fires on a number of planes, Kalispell police mentioned. The fire unfold to a grassy space earlier than it was extinguished, Venezio mentioned.
The small, city-owned airport is simply south of Kalispell, a metropolis of about 30,000 individuals in northwest Montana.
Witnesses mentioned a airplane crash-landed at the top of the runway and careened into one other aircraft, Kalispell Fire Chief Jay Hagen mentioned.
The passengers had been capable of get out on their very own after it got here to a cease, Hagen mentioned. Two had been barely harm and handled at the airport, he mentioned.
Ron Danielson manages a close-by inn and mentioned he heard and noticed the crash earlier than plumes of darkish smoke crammed the world.
“It sounded like if you were to stick your head in a bass drum and somebody smacked it as hard as they could,” he mentioned.
The flight originated in Pullman, Washington, in keeping with the National Transportation Safety Board.
The airplane was recognized by the FAA as a Socata TBM 700 turboprop. It was inbuilt 2011 and owned by Meter Sky LLC of Pullman, FAA information present. Company representatives didn’t instantly reply to a phone message searching for remark.
Aviation security advisor Jeff Guzzetti, who used to analyze crashes for each the FAA and NTSB, mentioned incidents the place planes crash into parked aircrafts occur a couple of instances a 12 months generally aviation.
In one high-profile incident in February, a Learjet owned by Motley Crue singer Vince Neil veered off a runway in Scottsdale, Arizona, and crashed into a parked Gulfstream, killing one particular person. The NTSB mentioned that crash could have been associated to prior injury to the landing gear, however investigators haven’t decided the trigger.
