John Jefferson
A small plane with two people on board crashed Saturday morning into a row of townhouses in a residential neighborhood of Fairview not far from the Portland International Airport and Troutdale Airport in Oregon, officials confirmed.
The crash killed the plane’s occupants and one resident in the townhouse it struck, the Associated Press, citing local station KATU-TV, reported.
One person from the townhouse that the plane struck had been reported missing, Gresham Fire Chief Scott Lewis told reporters earlier. Neighbors living in the adjoining townhouses have been evacuated.
“The plane hit a power pole and so the impact of that appears to have caused some of the plane pieces to come off so, like I said, there’s really kind of two crash areas, so to speak, and debris kind of all around,” Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer John Plock said.
After hitting the pole, the plane then slammed into the roof of a townhouse.
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Videos shared on social media showed a fire and a large plume of smoke that could be seen high over the tree line in Fairview.
The twin-engine Cessna 421C went down around 10:30 a.m., the FAA said.
Gresham Fire said on Facebook that it had responded with the help of other agencies, including The Port of Portland, Portland Fire and Rescue, and Clackamas Fire.
The plane came down even closer to the smaller Troutdale Airport, which describes itself as a “flight training and recreational airport.”
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Officials have not confirmed if there are any injuries or deaths.
Thousands of residents were left without power in the area after the pole went down, officials said.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate.
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