Crash damage may hit $50,000

The wreckage of a small plane that crashed into a home in southwest Kalispell was hauled away by a recovery company on Sunday and taken to Bozeman, where it will be stored until National Transportation Safety Board investigators can examine it.

“The wreckage was all cleared out and the house was turned over to the owner and repair company. They were working on cleaning it up,” Kalispell Fire Chief Dave Dedman said.

On Monday, plywood covered a hole in the front of the house at the corner of Ruddy Duck Drive and Golden Eye Court.

The plane crashed upside-down and propeller-first into the ground floor of the house early Saturday afternoon, causing an estimated $50,000 of damage to the house and vehicles parked on the street, Dedman said.

No one was seriously injured. That includes three people and two dogs on board the plane and the owner of the house, who was home at the time.

“It was a very lucky outcome for both the occupants of the plane and the house,” Dedman said.

The plane apparently crashed shortly after filling its fuel tank and taking off from Kalispell City Airport.

Local authorities have not identified any of the people involved in the plane crash or any suspected cause of the crash.

Online records show the plane to be a 1977 Piper PA-28 registered to Michael V. Seaman of Kalispell and based at Kalispell City Airport. Seaman could not be reached for comment Sunday or Monday.

Neighbors who helped pull the passengers out of the upside-down plane fuselage immediately after the crash said the pilot told them the plane started “putting” after takeoff.

A probable cause could take months for the National Transportation Safety Board to determine.

“We’re really reluctant to speculate at all until that report is out,” Interim City Manager Charles Harball said.

The crash happened as Kalispell is putting together a master plan update for Kalispell City Airport.

That study will recommend whether the 83-year-old general aviation facility should be improved, expanded, moved or closed.

Kalispell City Airport Manager Fred Leistiko did not return a phone call seeking comment Monday.

Quiet Skies, a group advocating that the airport be closed or moved, plans to continue its push for one of those two outcomes, spokesman Scott Davis said in an email to the group’s members.

“First of all we are so very happy that there was no one killed this time,” Davis wrote in the email Monday.

“We knew this would happen again, we told you so, it was just a matter of time, and it will continue to happen, planes will continue to crash into residents homes, schools, daycares, playgrounds, etc. in our city if they continue to keep that airport open.”

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.