Two people were killed Monday when a small plane crashed on private orchard property near Parkdale, Oregon, just south of Hood River, according to the Hood River County Sheriff's Office. The aircraft, a Mooney M20C, had taken off from the Hood River airport around 11:30 a.m. before going down along Trout Creek Ridge Road. The identities of the two victims have not been released, and the cause of the crash remains under investigation.
The Hood River County Sheriff's Office confirmed the deaths, and federal investigators identified the aircraft as a Mooney M20C, according to KATU. The plane went down on private property near an orchard, in the agricultural corridor along the northern base of Mount Hood where fruit orchards, farms and vineyards line Trout Creek Ridge Road, according to McCarthy Family Farm. Authorities have not released the names of the two people killed, and it remains unclear who was piloting the aircraft or why it went down.
NTSB Opens Formal Investigation
The National Transportation Safety Board announced Monday that it had opened a formal investigation into the fatal crash, according to KGW. Federal investigators typically evaluate radar data, airframe integrity, weather conditions and pilot records in the wake of fatal general aviation accidents, though no findings have been released. The precise weather conditions at the time of impact and the pilot's identity remain open questions as the investigation proceeds.
The flight originated from Ken Jernstedt Airfield, a public airport about two miles south of Hood River that sits at an elevation of 638 feet and has a single 3,040-foot asphalt runway, per AOPA. The airfield is owned and operated by the Port of Hood River in the upper Hood River Valley. Federal Aviation Administration remarks for the airfield explicitly warn pilots that crosswinds in the area can produce extreme low-level turbulence and unexpected wind currents around the runway, according to AirNav, a hazard tied to the complex wind patterns generated by the surrounding Columbia River Gorge terrain.
A Long-Serving Aircraft Model
The Mooney M20C is a four-seat, single-engine aircraft powered by a 180-horsepower Lycoming O-360 engine, with electrically retractable landing gear and a welded steel-tube cabin frame, according to Pilot Mall. Introduced in 1962, the M20C Ranger was built through 1978 as part of Mooney's M20 series, which produced more than 11,000 aircraft over its decades-long run before manufacturing ceased in 2019, per AeroCorner.
Hood River's History With Fatal Crashes
Monday's crash is not the first fatal light-aircraft accident tied to the area. In September 2019, a single-engine Piper Super Cub crashed during takeoff at Ken Jernstedt Airfield, killing a 56-year-old pilot and a 55-year-old passenger who were both affiliated with the local Western Antique Aeroplane & Automobile Museum, according to the Columbia Gorge News. And in January 2005, a Cirrus SR22 returning to Hood River crashed into a 2,200-foot mountain ridge near Starvation Creek, roughly five miles from the airport, killing all three local business owners aboard — a tragedy the outlet's archives attribute in part to the fog and rapid cloud accumulation common in the surrounding ridges.
Nationally, general aviation flights account for approximately 78% of all civil aviation crashes in the United States, according to National Transportation Safety Board data cited by the law firm Panish Shea Ravipudi. Even so, Federal Aviation Administration safety data shows the U.S. general aviation fatal accident rate in 2024 reached its lowest recorded level since formal tracking began in 2009, per PilotGPT, with federal officials crediting avionics upgrades and pilot training for the decline.
For now, the names of Monday's victims and the circumstances that brought the Mooney M20C down over the Parkdale orchard remain unknown. The Hood River County Sheriff's Office and the NTSB have not indicated when further details will be released as the investigation continues.
