A vintage Russian fighter plane that is scheduled to appear in the Duluth Airshow in September crashed Thursday while arriving for another air show in a Twin Cities suburb.
The pilot suffered minor injuries and was treated at the scene, said Patrick Hogan, spokesman for the Metropolitan Airports Commission. The MiG-21 jet had minor damage, Hogan said.
It's the same plane scheduled to appear in September's Duluth Airshow, said Airshow president Ryan Kern.
"The fuselage looks OK," he said, examining a photo of the damage. "We will have to hold tight and see. We don't know the extent of the damage."
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the MiG-21 arrived at Eden Prairie's Flying Cloud Airport about 10 a.m. Thursday. It slid off the end of a runway and crashed through a fence.
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The airport remained closed just before noon
because the plane's parachute -- deployed when the craft landed -- was lying on the airfield, Hogan said. The plane and the parachute could not be moved until the FAA inspected and approved the scene.
The aircraft "over-ran the runway ... when its landing parachute failed to properly deploy," according to a statement from Wings of the North, which is holding the air show.
The official cause of the crash will be determined by the FAA, Hogan said.
According to FAA records, the fixed-wing, single-engine craft is owned by a Michigan man. It was built in 1975 and is listed as an exhibition plane.
The plane was on the site for an aviation expo at the airport. The annual Air Expo, sponsored by Wings of the North, is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. The expo will not be affected by the crash, Hogan said.
Kern said he isn't yet sure how the Duluth Airshow will be affected by the crash, and expects that the pilot, Will Ward, will reach out to him shortly.
"I would still think he would be here with that aircraft," Kern said.
