FARIBAULT, Minn. – A small airplane was making its second attempt to land at a small airport when it turned upside down and crashed, killing all four people on board, authorities said Monday.
Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said the airplane had left Aberdeen, S.D., Sunday bound for Faribault, where it crashed.
Investigators were attempting to find out why it was making a second try to land at the Faribault Municipal Airport and what made it crash instead, she said.
The four-seat plane burst into flames and scattered debris across the airfield when it crashed just off the runway.
"There's very little left," Faribault Police Chief Dan Collins said Sunday. Wind was gusting above 20 mph, but it hadn't been determined if that contributed to the crash, he said.
FAA investigators arrived on the scene late Sunday, Cory said. The National Transportation Safety Board's own investigator arrived Monday morning, said a spokeswoman for that agency.
The Cirrus SR22 plane was registered to Mayo Aviation in Aberdeen, S.D.
There was no phone listing for a Mayo Aviation in Aberdeen. The Mayo Clinic in Rochester said it was not related to the famed hospital. A person answering the phone at a Colorado-based company called Mayo Aviation said it also had no connection to the South Dakota company.
A spokesman for the plane's manufacturer, Cirrus Design Corp. of Duluth, declined to comment while the investigation continues. Since 2002, the SR22 has been involved in 17 accidents resulting in 35 deaths, according to the NTSB.
Faribault is a town of 21,000 some 50 miles south of Minneapolis.
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