Three die as plane crashes into Hermantown home

Two people inside the home were uninjured.

October 2, 2022 at 11:42PM
An airplane crashed into the second floor of a Hermantown home late Saturday, killing all three people onboard. Two people in the house escaped injury. (Christa Lawler, Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Three people died late Saturday when a single-engine plane crashed into a house in Hermantown, Minn., minutes after it took off from the Duluth International Airport.

Authorities on Sunday identified the victims as passengers Alyssa Schmidt, 32, of St. Paul, her brother Matthew Schmidt, 31, of Burnsville, and the pilot, Tyler Fretland, 32, of Burnsville.

The Cessna 172 Skyhawk went down shortly before midnight and crashed into a house in the 5100 block of Arrowhead Road, said Joe Wicklund, a spokesman for the city of Hermantown.

Two people inside the home were uninjured, he said.

The plane hit the second floor of the house and came to rest in the backyard.

The Hermantown Police Department was notified by the control tower at the Duluth airport after the small airplane had left radar and was believed to have crashed. The control tower advised the last location on radar was 1 to 1.5 miles south of the airport.

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash. The NTSB will be in charge of the investigation and will provide additional updates, the FAA said.

about the writers

about the writers

Kim Hyatt

Reporter

Kim Hyatt reports on North Central Minnesota. She previously covered Hennepin County courts.

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Tim Harlow

Reporter

Tim Harlow covers traffic and transportation issues in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, and likes to get out of the office, even during rush hour. He also covers the suburbs in northern Hennepin and all of Anoka counties, plus breaking news and weather. 

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