Three people dead after small plane crashes in Oregon town

Three people were dead after a small plane crashed into a row of townhouses on Saturday morning in a neighborhood east of Portland, setting the homes ablaze, authorities told KATU-TV.

Officials earlier in the day had said the plane was carrying two people and that at least one resident had been unaccounted for.

The Federal Aviation Administration said that a twin-engine Cessna 421C came down at about 10.30am local time near the Troutdale airport.

“The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate,” the FAA said in a statement. “The NTSB will be in charge of the investigation and will provide any updates.”

Scott Lewis, chief of the nearby Gresham fire department, said the fire spread from two units to four. Lewis said the fire displaced five families and two people were treated for injuries at the scene.

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The Multnomah county sheriff’s office posted to X that it was responding to the scene. John Plock, a public information officer from the sheriff’s office, later gave a news conference where he said the initial call came at 10.20am local time reporting black smoke.

“At some point during the crash, it hit a power pole or tower, causing it to fall over. The aircraft crashed into a building of townhomes and that structure also caught fire,” Plock said, according to KATU.

The plane was split into multiple parts as it crashed in the residential area in the city of Fairview, AP reported. Troutdale airport is described on the Port of Portland’s website as a “flight training and recreational airport”.

The full extent of the damage and injuries was not clear, but images and videos on social media showed a plume of smoke above the site, with one user writing that “lots of customers now without power”.

According to the US power outage site, 13,921 Portland General Electric customers in Multnomah county were without electricity.