Flight instructor and family killed in Fresno plane crash

Four people are now confirmed dead following a plane crash that burned five acres of land along the San Joaquin River on Saturday.

First responders were called to the scene just before 2 p.m. and found the fixed-wing, single-engine aircraft near the runway of Sierra Sky Park, a public-use airport attached to a residential neighborhood in northwest Fresno.

Two children were pronounced at the scene and a man and a woman were found outside the plane wreckage. They were taken to the hospital and both later died, the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office confirmed over the long holiday weekend.

They were identified as Craig Eady and his wife Danna Eady, both were 41 years old and lived in Auberry in the eastern Fresno County foothills.

The ages and identities of the children have not been released, but according to a fundraising campaign on the site Supportnow.org, they appear to be the Eadys’ youngest sons and two of their four children.

Danna Eady was a certified flight instructor teaching at Reedley College, where flight sciences classed were cancelled Tuesday and counseling has been made available to students and staff.

According to a LinkedIn profile, the 41-year-old was the founder and owner of Meraki Aviation, an aircraft rental and flight instruction company. She also served as vice president of Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 376, according to the profile.

Photo of Reedley College flight instructor Danna Eady, 41, taken during a pinning ceremony on Friday, Sept. 4, 2026. Eady was killed in plane crash on Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026. REEDLEY COLLEGE FFA, NTSB Investigation under way

Little information has been released on the crash itself.

It was not immediately clear, for example, whether the plane was arriving at, or departing from, the airstrip, though Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Tony Botti said it’s likely the plane was leaving Sierra Sky Park. It wasn’t clear how long the plane had been in the air or its destination, he said.

The crash is being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board, though it will likely take up to a year for a full-finding to be released, Botti said.

Other plane crashes at Sierra Sky Park

This is not the first time a crashed on it way into, or out of, Sierra Sky Park.

In 2020, a Cessna 172 Skyhawk, crashed through a fence and a pedestrian walkway, before landing on its roof in the center median of Herndon Avenue. In that case, the pilot walked away with minor injuries.

In 2016, William Huene and Chase Splan died in an experimental aircraft that left Sierra Sky Park before plunging into the San Joaquin River.

A blackened hillside, lower left, between Milburn Pond and the Sierra Sky Park Airport in northwest Fresno shows where a vegetation fire was started after a plane crashed near the airport on Saturday, killing the four occupants aboard. Sierra Sky Park, photographed on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, is described as the world’s first residential fly-in aviation community CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com A sign on Herndon Avenue near Blythe in northwest Fresno denotes Sierra Sky Park is described as the world’s first residential fly-in aviation community. Photographed on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com A monument near the airstrip at Sierra Sky Park in northwest Fresno gives information about the spot being described as the world’s first residential fly-in aviation community. Photographed on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com Planes sit near the airstrip at Sierra Sky Park in northwest Fresno on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. The park is described as the world’s first residential fly-in aviation community. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com A plane sites in the driveway of a home in the Sierra Sky Park Airport neighborhood in northwest Fresno on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. Sierra Sky Park is described as the world’s first residential fly-in aviation community. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com Sierra Sky Park Airport in northwest Fresno, photographed on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, is described as the world’s first residential fly-in aviation community CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com Sierra Sky Park Airport in northwest Fresno, photographed on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, is described as the world’s first residential fly-in aviation community CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com

This story was originally published September 8, 2026 at 10:32 AM.

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