Two people are dead after a small plane crashed near a home in Afton Saturday morning. Just before 9:45am, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office received several 911 calls from neighbors near the 15000 block of Afton Hills Blvd S. reporting what sounded like a small explosion. Emergency crews arrived and located a small, fully engulfed aircraft that had crashed in the yard of a residence near the attached garage. Lower St. Croix Valley Fire Department extinguished the flames and located the bodies of an 85-year-old man from White Bear Lake and 68-year-old man from Baytown Township. The families of the deceased have been notified. The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office has identified the deceased men from Saturday’s plane crash as William Patrick Moore, 85 of White Bear Lake and Mitchell Jay Zahler, 68 of Baytown Township. This incident, including the cause of the crash and any contributing factors, remains under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Washington County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Manager Laura Perkins joined KDWA with more.
