Family and friends of 85-year-old William Patrick Moore, known as Pat, say he loved to fly his Globe GC1 Swift airplane.

“That plane was his baby,” explains longtime friend Bob Rodriguez. “That was his enjoyment, being up in the clouds, and he would tell us how he felt.”

Moore’s wife Vicky says her husband and a friend flew out from Lake Elmo Airport around 9:37 Saturday morning, heading to Granite Falls to visit an aviation museum.

Instead — the single-engine, two-seater crashed just minutes later, only a few feet from a home along the 15,000 block of Afton Hills Drive South.  

Authorities were called to the scene around 9:45 a.m., responding to the report of a small explosion.  

Crews on the scene say they found a small plane fully engulfed in flames, that had crashed near an attached garage.

Fire crews put out the fire and found the bodies of two men.

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office says the second person on the plane was a 68-year-old man from Baytown Township, identifying him Monday afternoon as Mitchell Jay Zahler.

“I’m in utter shock,” says Leah Tutora, who’s lived next door to the Moore’s in White Bear Lake for the past five years. “Just devastated for Vicky. Just a beautiful person. Great person. We’re so sad.”

One neighbor, who lives near the scene says she heard a plane engine cutting out — then a popping noise, just before the crash.

She says people tried to use a hose to put the flames out, without success.

Meanwhile — Bob Rodriguez, a friend of the Moore’s for about twenty years — says he is still trying to process what happened.

“He was there if you needed anything,” Rodriguez explains. “He enjoyed (flying) very much. At least when he died, he was doing what he liked, or loved, I should say.”

Vicky Moore says her husband had been flying since 1958, and his plane was a 1961 model.

The couple took vacations around the world, she says — traveling to air shows and meeting with other aviators.

They had planned on going to an airshow in Texas in May.

“Pilot shows, air shows, they do that all over Wisconsin, all summer,” Tutora says. “So really fun to witness them following their passion, so we will miss them.”

The National Transportation Safety Board says it’s investigating the crash, with preliminary information indicating “the plane impacted terrain next to a house under unknown circumstances.”

An NTSB investigator is scheduled to arrive on the scene Sunday, to begin documenting and examining the aircraft.

The plane will be later brought to a secure facility for further evaluation.

Investigators will review flight track data, air traffic control communications, maintenance records and more.

Besides his wife Vicky, Moore is survived by two sons and four grandchildren.

She told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that “the Swift was the love of his life,” and like others who knew him, emphasized her husband passed away doing what he loved.

“He had a good life, but it’s still shocking to lose a neighbor and a good friend,” Rodriguez says.  

“I just know it was a beautiful hobby of his,” Tutora adds. “He was always up there in the sky, and every time I looked at a plane, I thought of Pat.”

Witnesses with surveillance video or other information should contact the NTSB at witness@ntsb.gov. 

Editor’s Note: The video above incorrectly refers to Granite Falls as a city in Wisconsin, although it is actually in southwest Minnesota.