NTSB report: Plane that crashed into Brooklyn Park home in March suddenly descended rapidly

NTSB report on Brooklyn Park plane crash

On Friday, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released a preliminary investigation report about the plane that crashed into a home in Brooklyn Park on March 31, killing the pilot, who was the only person onboard.

The report says that the pilot, 63-year-old Terry Dolan, flew from Naples, Florida, to Des Moines, Iowa, where he refueled and left at 11:12 a.m. en route to the airport in Blaine.

Dolan, who was a U.S. Bank executive, contacted air traffic control at the Blaine airport to say he was inbound for runway 9. The traffic controller verified that Dolan had current weather information and gave landing clearance to runway 9, the report says.

Then, Dolan repeated back the landing clearance and said he had the weather conditions.

At 12:20 p.m., the plane was inbound for the runway approach and began to descend.

About four minutes after Dolan spoke to the controller, the controller contacted him again to give a low-altitude alert, but got no response. Three minutes after that alert, the traffic controller tried again to contact Dolan, and again did not get a response, the report says.

When the plane was beyond the final approach fix, it suddenly started to descend rapidly. Nearby residential doorbell camera footage also showed that the plane’s nose was pointed down, and the aircraft was rotating.

As it went down, the aircraft hit trees and then crashed into the home and started on fire. The main wreckage of the plane was in the basement of the home it destroyed. Nearby broken tree limbs had angular cuts that were consistent with propeller strikes, the report says.

The report also notes that no mechanical anomalies were found with the airframe or engine during the onsite examination or wreckage layout.

As previously reported, no one who lived at the home or near the home was injured.

You can read the full report below.