Elementary teacher among three dead after plane crashes into Minnesota house

Three people including an elementary teacher are dead after a small plane crashed into a house in northern Minnesota over the weekend.

According to the Hermantown Police Department, a Cessna 172 plane crashed into the second floor of the home just south of the Duluth International Airport late Saturday, before coming to a stop in the backyard.

Police identified the dead as Tyler Fretland, 32, of Burnsville, the airplane’s pilot, and passengers Alyssa Schmidt, 32, of St. Paul, and Matthew Schmidt, 31, of Burnsville. Police said the Schmidts were siblings.

No one inside the home was hurt, police reported.

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According to preliminary information from police, the department was notified by the airport’s control tower that a small airplane disappeared from radar and may have crashed. The control tower told police its last location on radar was 1 to 1.5 miles south of the airport.

On scene, first responders found wreckage of a Cessna 172 airplane. The plane, police said, hit the second floor of a home before coming to rest in the backyard of the property.

Two people in the home were not hurt, police reported.

Jason Hoffman told Minnesota Public Radio he and his wife were asleep when the plane tore through the roof above their bed.

“We couldn’t hardly see each other through all the insulation dust. I was able to grab a flashlight next to the bed and the first thing I saw was an airplane wheel sitting at the end of our bed,” Hoffman told the outlet “That’s when we looked out and noticed the entire back half of our house was gone.”

Some of the plane’s wreckage, he said, was wedged between his truck and the home’s garage.

A spokesperson with Independent School District 196 in the Twin Cities told KSTP Schmidt taught third grade at Echo Park Elementary School.

The district could not immediately be reached for comment by USA TODAY.

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board were investigating the cause of the crash on Monday.