TROUTDALE, Ore. — Three people are confirmed dead after a small plane with two occupants crashed into a residential area near the Troutdale Airport Saturday morning, striking a set of power transmission lines and then hitting a row of townhomes, setting multiple units ablaze. The twin-engine Cessna 421C crashed at around 10:30 a.m. in Fairview, about 11 miles east of Portland.
Gresham fire officials confirmed Saturday evening that there were at least three fatalities in the incident, but said they could not confirm any other details about who died. The Federal Aviation Administration previously confirmed that there had been two people onboard the plane, and Gresham Fire Chief Scott Lewis said that one townhome resident was unaccounted for.
There were also multiple injuries in the incident, according to Lewis and Multnomah County Sheriff's Deputy John Plock, but the extent of the injuries and the number of injured people were not known.
Video shot by people at the scene late Saturday morning showed at multiple units on fire in the row of townhomes, with debris strewn in front and visible flames in the upper story of one house and smoke billowing from a window of the other, with a large number of fire personnel responding.
There was a "somewhat large" debris field, Plock said, and there were two main crash areas because some pieces apparently began to break off after the plane hit the power equipment.
The crash side is located near a power transmission line, and video from the scene on Saturday showed multiple wires apparently knocked off of one of the transmission towers. Some of the lines landed in a nearby field and sparked a brush fire, Plock said, although the fire didn't spread far.
The damage to the lines also caused a power outage; Portland General Electric confirmed that around 9,000 customers in the Fairview area had been impacted. PGE later said service had been restored to all impacted customers as of 3 p.m.
PGE told KGW on Saturday evening that its crews were onsite and working with National Transportation Safety Board officials to safely access the power equipment and assess the damage before beginning repairs. The transmission tower itself was still in place, PGE said; most of the damage appeared to be to the lines.
Lewis said fire crews were first notified of the incident by staff at the Troutdale Airport control tower, who reported a column of smoke west of the airport. Arriving crews found heavy fire in the row of townhomes, initially involving two units but later spreading to impact four in total.
The incident became a five-alarm fire, Lewis said, in part because the high temperatures on Saturday meant that fire personnel needed to frequently take breaks to avoid overheating. Portland Fire & Rescue and Vancouver Fire Department crews responded in addition to Gresham Fire Department crews.
The crash impact caused structural damage to the building, he added, so fire crews couldn't safely work inside the building as much as they'd normally be able to in a residential fire, and had to focus more on exterior operations with overhead water from a ladder truck. He said it wasn't clear if fuel from the plane helped feed the fire, but that the size of the smoke column in the initial reports suggested that it was possible.
A total of five families have been displaced, Lewis said, with the possibility of a sixth displaced family depending on the condition of their unit once fire crews assess it.
Plock added that volunteers from the Trauma Intervention Program had responded to the site to help the people who were displaced, and the Red Cross later told KGW that the agency had sent team members to scene and that all the affected families had safe places to stay lined up for Saturday night.
The FAA said the NTSB will lead the investigation into the crash, with the FAA also involved. An NTSB spokesperson told KGW that the agency has dispatched two investigators to the site who will document the plane wreckage and then move it to a secure facility for further evaluation.
Anyone who witnessed the accident or has surveillance video or other relevant information is asked to contact witness@ntsb.gov. The NTSB spokesperson said the agency would not discuss the cause of the accident during the on-the-ground investigation phase, and that it will be up to local authorities to release any information about victims or injuries.