A Brooklyn Park family says another weekend plane crash reignited concerns and the loss they have lived with since a plane destroyed their home.
Mary Butler and Ken Tobacman lost their home in late March 2025 when a small private plane crashed into it in Brooklyn Park. On Saturday, another plane crashed in the metro suburb. Three lives were lost between the two crashes.
No one was hurt on the ground, though Butler and Tobacman lost their cat in the 2025 crash, and Tobacman escaped just before their home was fully engulfed in flames.
A year later, following another crash on Saturday, Butler expressed concern about the potential for harm to people on the ground.
“You know, if it had been only a couple 100 yards more on Saturday, it could have been, again, very different,” said Butler.
The sound of reconstruction filled the air on Thursday at the site of their former and future home, and Butler said the concern has become constant when small planes fly overhead. One flew overhead during the interview.
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“I’ve just become exquisitely sensitive to this feeling that people are making decisions about flying overhead, and the people on the ground have no input into those decisions, but the potential for impact is large,” said Butler.
Doug Hiltz, vice president and general manager of Blaine-based Malibu Aerospace, works as a pilot and mechanic dealing in small private planes. He said the company specializes in maintenance and annual inspections.
“If we look at the trend of accidents over the last five years, it is trending down… Even though hours for general aviation are actually trending up,” said Hiltz, asked to characterize the frequency of small private plane crashes.
In Minnesota alone in 2025, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recorded 21 accidents, four of them fatal. In 2024, there were 24 accidents with one fatality, and in 2023, there were 33 accidents and seven fatalities. This year so far, there have been three accidents, one of which was fatal.
“The accident statistics that we have from the NTSB are moving in the downward direction, just unfortunate that we’ve had several of them locally,” said Hiltz.
The NTSB is still investigating both Brooklyn Park crashes. Hiltz said many crashes are preventable with proper training, maintenance and compliance with federal regulations.
“And if we can step back and look at what happened on these accidents and learn from that, it can be hopefully prevented in the future,” said Hiltz.
“It would be nice to see shops, maintenance providers, put a little more stake into their safety programs like we have,” said Hiltz.
Hiltz said he is satisfied with safety regulations, adding that there is not always enforcement because a limited number of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) agents focus more heavily on commercial flights.
Butler and Tobacman hope to move back in later this summer.
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