A Brainerd man and his passenger were uninjured when their aircraft crashed just after noon Tuesday at Aitkin Municipal Airport.
A 911 call was made to Aitkin County dispatch offices at 12:11 p.m. regarding a single-engine aircraft that crashed at the airport. The Aitkin police and fire departments and the Aitkin County Sheriff's Office responded to the scene.
A fixed-wing, single-engine Cessna plane crashed on the grass portion of the runway north of the airport, the Aitkin Police Department reported in a news release. The pilot, Ryan Frank, 22, of Brainerd, and his passenger, Kenneth Mehr, 63, of Deerwood, were uninjured. The aircraft sustained structural damage.
According to a 2015 Brainerd Dispatch story, the pilot, Frank, was 17 and a junior at Brainerd High School when he earned his private pilot’s license. Frank obtained his flight instruction through Airmotive Enterprises at the Brainerd Lakes Regional Airport.
The Federal Aviation Administration will assist the police department with the investigation to determine the cause of the crash.
