DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. — Two people died in a small plane crash about one mile south of Centennial Airport on Friday morning, the Douglas County Sheriff's Office and South Metro Fire Rescue confirmed in a news conference.
A Beech BE35 airplane crashed around 6:20 a.m. at 8636 S. Peoria Street, according to South Metro Fire Rescue, in a business park housing the Flexential - Denver - Englewood Data Center. The report of an explosion at Peoria Street and Aviator Way came in first to South Metro Fire Rescue, and when first responders arrived, they found a fire threatening generators for a nearby building.
There was no damage to generators or the building though, and no other injuries were reported, law enforcement confirmed. The Douglas County Coroner's Office will identify the two people who died and notify their families.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating what exactly caused the crash. Anyone with surveillance video or pictures of the incident is asked to email eyewitness@ntsb.gov.
- Watch the full news conference with first responders in the video player below:
Denver7's Lauren Lennon arrived on scene shortly after the crash to learn more. She said she could see smoke in the area upon arrival.
Lennon spoke with Desmond Brown, who has worked in the area of the crash for four years, about what he saw and heard.
"I was inside to my place of business, and I was working, and we just heard a loud boom," Brown said. "So when we heard a loud boom, me and my coworkers came outside, we noticed a big ball of flames across them. Over here, we was wondering what it was. We thought it was a generator at first, and then next thing we heard when another coworker came up to and said it was a plane that went down."
Denver7 obtained air traffic control (ATC) recordings and the plane's track information from FlightAware.com, which showed the pilot performing touch-and-go landings in the traffic pattern at Centennial airport before crashing moments after taking off again and turning back north to return to the runway.
ATC recordings showed the tower instructed the pilot to “line up and wait on runway 17R” and later told the pilot to expect “left traffic for the left side.”
Centennial Airport has two parallel runways, 17R and 17L, and both were in use Friday morning.
The ATC instruction showed the pilot was to take off on 17R and once airborne, would be directed to return to the airport and land on 17L.
The pilot acknowledged and told ATC he planned to do more “stop and go’s and stay out of everybody’s hair.” Moments later, the tower cleared the pilot to take off on 17R and “fly straight out” to which the pilot read back the instruction.
Less than two minutes later, ATC cleared the pilot to make standard left turns in the traffic pattern to return to runway 17L.
According to ATC recordings, the pilot completed the sequence back to the runway before again taking off, telling the Centennial controller “on the roll" — meaning, he was taking off again. The pilot repeats his intention and the controller acknowledges “roger.”
At this point in the recording, there will be no response from the pilot.
Around two minutes after the pilot takes off, ATC again cleared the pilot “for the option” back to Runway 17L — meaning the controller approved the pilot to stay in the left-hand traffic pattern and return for either a full-stop landing or another touch-and-go.
A few seconds pass before the tower again repeats the instruction, followed by “how do you hear?”
ATC asked the pilot to press the “IDENT” button on the plane’s transponder which would be another way for the controller to receive the plane’s position information if there were a communication issue.
The controller again asked the pilot to press the “IDENT” button again, and cleared the aircraft to land.
Moments later, another voice — presumably a pilot — was heard on the recording telling ATC, “tower, there’s smoke on the left side — looks like he went down.”
The controller’s tone changed and two other planes were quickly cleared to land before the other pilot on the frequency repeated to ATC: “Appears he crashed in a parking lot about a mile southeast of the field”, to which the controller responded: "Roger that, we’re passing to emergency crews now.
The Douglas County Sheriff's Office and the FAA will release all further information, according to South Metro Fire Rescue.
