A small plane crashed Saturday afternoon near Centennial Airport in the south Denver suburbs, South Metro Fire Rescue said.
The agency reported injuries to two occupants of the plane, with one taken to a hospital and the other treated at the scene in a parking lot. No information was available about the injuries.
“Both occupants of the plane were already out when the fire crews arrived,” said Eric Hurst, South Metro’s public information officer.
South Metro reported the crash on Twitter just after 3:30 p.m. Images tweeted from the scene by arriving media and South Metro’s account showed the aftermath of a hard landing, with the small aircraft resting upside down and one wing broken off.
BREAKING: small aircraft crash south of Centennial Airport. Several agencies responding. Wing from aircraft is broken off. Trees limbs down
— Dillon Thomas (@DillonMThomas)
South Metro said the crash occurred near Belford Avenue and Peoria Street, near Lone Tree. That intersection is just south of E-470 from the airport.
The plane struck trees as it crashed in a parking lot outside an office building that was empty on the weekend afternoon, the agency said.
It wasn’t the first time a plane had crashed into the same lot, Hurst said. And several crashes have occurred at other places in the area south of the airport over the years, as planes made emergency landings or had things go awry on approach to Centennial.
Update – 1 person transported to the hospital, 1 treated on scene. Media staging in the parking lot, east side at 12500 Belford Ave
— South Metro Fire Rescue (@SouthMetroPIO)
For now, few details about what went wrong for this plane — and its unidentified pilot — were available late Saturday afternoon. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident, Hurst said.
