Pilot dead after crashing into Santa Fe mobile home

A pilot has died after crashing into a Santa Fe home early Tuesday morning. 

Authorities received reports of a twin-engine Cessna 310 crashing into a mobile home in the La Cienega community just south of Santa Fe Municipal Airport around 9 a.m., according to the Federal Aviation Administration. 

The plane began its journey in Sherman Oaks, California before it stopped to refuel at the Santa Fe airport.

A few minutes after departing, the pilot reported engine failure before crashing into the home, the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement to USA TODAY. 

Local authorities worked to put out the fire as quickly as possible, but the pilot died on scene, the Sheriff’s Office said. The home was completely destroyed by the flames. No one was present in the home at the time of the crash.

Emergency crews remained on scene to extinguish the last of the hot spots. No other injuries have been reported. 

The cause of the crash will be investigated by the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board. 

How common are private plane crashes?

When the National Transportation Safety Board documented the number of hours a plane spent in the air back in 2007, they found that aircrafts generally logged 24 million flight hours, according to an aircraft statistics website. Out of these 24 million flight hours, 6.84 of every 100,000 flight hours yielded an airplane crash with 1.19 of every 100,000 resulting in a fatal crash.

Those statistics tend to be higher for private planes but are harder to keep track of due to lax government regulation and non-reporting, though private plane crashes have been on the decline since the 1980s.

A total of 39 aviation related accidents were reported last year, according to a report from the International Air Transport Association, 80% being caused by human error.