DENVER (KDVR) — The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office confirmed one person has died after a fiery small plane crash in an Arvada neighborhood on Friday in which four passengers were transported to a hospital.
At about 5:30 p.m., the family of the deceased individual released a statement through the Arvada Police Department, identifying the victim of the plane crash as Melissa Brinkmann.
“On Saturday, June 8th, we said goodbye to our beloved Melissa, our daughter, our big sister, our mom, our best friend, our partner, our hero. We ask for space and privacy to grieve this tremendous loss on our own terms,” the Brinkmann family wrote. “Melissa was bold, brave, loving, and a fierce champion of those she loved – and she loved boundlessly. To know Melissa was to be inspired by her. She elevated others and made this world a better place. We have been awe-struck and comforted by the countless messages, memories, and stories shared by the legions of people Melissa has impacted. We will be forever grateful to the first responders, bystanders, and medical staff who came to her aid, fought for her, and eased her passage from this life.”
According to information shared in a press conference with the National Transportation Safety Board, four people aboard 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.
Small craft pilot radios about engine problems
Alex Lemishko, a senior accident investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, 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.
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,”
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.
Evan Sherlock told 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.”
