Elementary school teacher among 3 killed in Duluth plane crash

(ABC 6 News) – Three Twin Cities metro residents are dead after an airplane crashed into a home late Saturday night in Hermantown, according to a city press release.

Just before midnight on October 1, the Hermantown Police Department was notified by the control tower at Duluth International Airport, of a small airplane that had left radar and was believed to be crashed.

The last location of the plane on radar was 1 to 1.5 miles south of the airport, according to the control tower.

Both police and fire departments from surrounding agencies responded to the area and located the wreckage of a Cessna 172 airplane in the 5100 block of Arrowhead Road.

The airplane hit the second floor of a home before coming to rest in the backyard of the property. The two occupants of the home were not injured.

The pilot has been identified as 32-year-old Tyler Fretland of Burnsville.

The other victims, both passengers, have been identified as Alyssa and Matthew Schmidt. Hermantown Police say they were siblings aged 32 and 31 respectively.

A spokesperson with Independent School District 196, Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan, confirmed to our partner station KSTP that one of the three people killed, Alyssa Schmidt, was a teacher at Echo Park Elementary School in Burnsville, but lived in St. Paul.

The National Transportation Safety Board is the lead agency in the investigation. The cause is still under investigation.