Small plane carrying 2 people crashes into townhomes near Portland; one resident missing

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A small plane carrying two people crashed into a row of townhouses Saturday morning in a neighborhood east of Portland, setting the homes ablaze and leaving at least one resident unaccounted for, authorities said.

Gresham Fire Chief Scott Lewis told reporters at an afternoon briefing that he couldn’t yet say if there were any fatalities, noting that fire crews were working around major structural damage to the townhomes as a result of the crash.

Photos and videos published by KGW-TV in Portland show one of the townhomes engulfed in flames while black smoke poured out of the adjoining houses. Lewis said the fire spread to at least four of the homes, displacing up to six families. He said two people were treated at the scene, but he didn’t describe the type or severity of injuries.

The Federal Aviation Administration identified the aircraft as a twin-engine Cessna 421C, which it says went down around 10:30 a.m. near Troutdale Airport, about a 30-minute drive east of Portland.

As the plane went down, it knocked over a pole and power lines, causing a separate brush fire in a nearby field, according to the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office. The plane was split into multiple parts as it crashed in the residential area in the city of Fairview, which is home to about 10,000 people.

Lewis said the first call about the fire came from staff at the Troutdale Airport’s control tower, who saw a thick plume of smoke rising in the air. But Lewis said that initial reports indicated “there was no mayday, no call for emergency” from the aircraft itself before it crashed.

The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation into the crash. The agency has sent two investigators to the site of the crash who will document the wreckage, spokesperson Peter Knudson said. He did not release further details about the crash.

The website for the Port of Portland, which oversees general aviation and marine operations in the Portland area, describes Troutdale Airport as a “flight training and recreational airport.”