A small plane crashed in a field near Petaluma Municipal Airport around 10:45 a.m. Wednesday, October 7, 2026, authorities said, triggering a fire and a road closure along East Washington Street as emergency crews converged on the scene. No injuries had been reported immediately following the crash.
The crash happened near Rooster Run Golf Club, and a Rooster Run Golf Club employee confirmed to CBS San Francisco that a plane had gone down in the area. Petaluma Police Department closed East Washington Street between Garfield Drive and Adobe Road because of the crash, according to the same report. Petaluma Fire Department crews were dispatched for a report of a plane that crashed and caught fire.
Aerial Views Show Wreckage and Scorched Ground
Aerial footage captured the same day by KTVU's SkyFox unit showed aircraft wreckage scattered in the agricultural field next to the golf club, with scorched earth visible beside the fuselage and the perimeter marked by tape, according to KTVU FOX 2. Investigators were at the scene, the station reported. The aircraft was identified as a Van's RV-7A. FAA information reported by KTVU said it crashed shortly after taking off from Petaluma Municipal Airport, with two people aboard.
A Stretch of Road With a Troubled History
The crash site sits in strikingly familiar territory. In May 2018, a single-engine Van's RV-6 aircraft crashed along the same East Washington Street corridor near Rooster Run Golf Club, roughly 1,000 yards east of the airport, killing both people on board, according to the Los Angeles Times. East Washington Street is a busy four-lane thoroughfare bordering the airfield, and Wednesday's crash marks the second time in under a decade that an aircraft has gone down in nearly the same spot.
A Busy General Aviation Hub
Petaluma Municipal Airport covers 220 acres and features a single 3,601-foot asphalt runway that handles approximately 60,000 aircraft takeoffs and landings each year, making it a busy, non-towered general aviation hub, per data from AirNav. The city-owned airfield was dedicated in 1985 to replace the former Sky Ranch airfield and now houses about 240 aircraft across 160 hangars and 62 tie-down spots, according to the Petaluma Area Pilots Association. The airport serves general aviation traffic.
A Pattern of Recent Incidents
Wednesday's crash is far from an isolated event at the North Bay airfield. On July 29, a small aircraft crashed during takeoff at the same airport with only the pilot aboard, KRON4 reported. In May, a pilot escaped injury after flipping a floatplane in the Petaluma River near Shurp Slough during water landing practice. Petaluma Fire Department rescued the pilot, while the Sheriff's Office dispatched its Henry 1 helicopter and Marine Unit.
Investigators were at the scene Wednesday, and what happened in the East Washington Street crash remained unclear; two people were aboard.
