1 dead from fiery Arvada plane crash on Friday that left 3 others injured

DENVER (KDVR) — The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office confirmed one person has died after a small plane crash in an Arvada neighborhood on Friday in which four passengers were transported to a hospital.

Details of who died, in addition to the manner and cause of death, were not available on Monday.

According to information shared in a press conference with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), four people onboard the plane were all transported to the hospital, and two of the patients were adults. Some of them sustained burns. It is not clear whether the other two people were adults or children, although, at one point on Friday, the Arvada Fire Department shared that two of the injured parties were juveniles.

The plane crashed around 9:30 a.m., striking a fence and a tree at Oberon Road and Balsam Street before crashing into a yard at the corner of Oberon Road and Brentwood Street. According to the NTSB, the 1969 Beechcraft 35 crashed about 15 minutes after taking off from Centennial Airport — apparently headed to the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport—about 30 miles northwest of the Centennial Airport.

Since the Friday press conference with the NTSB, very little information about the crash has been shared. Information about why the plane went down, who was inside, and where it was headed still remains unconfirmed.

Small craft pilot radios about engine problems

Alex Lemishko, a senior accident investigator for the NTSB, said the pilot had radioed to air traffic control that he was “experiencing engine problems” and was hoping to land at the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport, but shortly thereafter crashed.

According to Arvada Fire, the pilot radioed the Jefferson County air traffic control tower and asked for an emergency landing after seeing a low oil pressure light. Only minutes after that, the pilot made another call reporting extreme power loss.

The pilot told the tower that they were not going to make it and they would have to “put it down” somewhere, as can be heard on air traffic control recordings.


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The pilot tried to land in the street in the residential neighborhood, Lemishko said. The plane’s left wing hit a large spruce tree, and the plane skidded down the roadway and veered into the yard, he said. The plane also hit a pickup truck parked on the street in front of the home, pushing the truck up into the home’s driveway into another truck, Arvada Fire Spokesperson Deanna Harrington, said.

Neighbors report explosion, jump into action after crash

Randy Hamrick and his wife live in the home where the plane crashed. They were inside at the time, and their first thought was a train derailed from the track across the street.

“We saw the explosion and the glow from the outside and said, well, wait a second,” Hamrick told FOX31’s Nate Belt.

Then he thought the house was collapsing.

“It felt like it was falling in. I mean, it was just that violent,” he said.

Witnesses of the crash reported seeing the low-flying plane “teetering” from side to side in Arvada.

Arvada first responders at the scene of a plane crash on June 7, 2024. (Credit: Evan Sherlock)An aerial view of a plane crash in Arvada on June 7, 2024. First responders said everyone on was taken to the hospital.Debris from a plane crash in Arvada on June 7, 2024. (Ashley Michels, KDVR)First responders block off traffic to the scene of a small plane crash near Oberon Road and Carr Street in Arvada on June 6, 2024. Arvada first responders at the scene of a plane crash on June 7, 2024. (KDVR)Arvada first responders at the scene of a plane crash on June 7, 2024.

Evan Sherlock told FOX31 on Friday that he was going to get mulch for his front yard when he saw a plane flying extremely low, weaving back and forth and dipping wings. After a look in his rearview mirror, he realized the plane was gone. Sherlock made a U-turn and found plane debris in the front yard of a home.

“I couldn’t believe that’s what I just saw. I was hoping that it was doing something else,” Sherlock said. “I could see smoke coming out of it, and at first it looked like a crop duster to me. And then I was like, there’s no way — why would you be crop dusting in Arvada? But obviously, something was mechanically wrong with the airplane, and it was just entirely too low for it to be doing anything safe.”


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He said neighbors were pulling out their own garden hoses to extinguish the craft’s blaze.

“People were already getting garden hoses out before the fire services showed up, so there were people there. And that’s good to know that I live in a community that has people that are willing to help in that kind of emergency,” Sherlock said.

Other neighbors reported debris throughout their yards and over the street.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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