‘Horrible event’: No survivors found in plane crash at Johnson County airport

No survivors were found after a plane crashed just north of Johnson County Executive Airport Sunday morning, according to Kansas Highway Patrol.

Officials later confirmed that one person was dead. They have not been publicly identified.

The initial call came in around 10:20 a.m., Capt. Mike Hall, with the Olathe Fire Department, told media at the scene Sunday. Hall said they found a single-engine plane “fully engulfed” in flames in the middle of a field.

The plane crashed north of the runway near 151st Street. Smoke from the plane could be seen from a couple miles away, and the fire sparked a small grass fire a couple acres wide that also had to be extinguished.

It remained unclear how many people were on the plane, but no survivors were found, Kansas Highway Patrol spokeswoman Trooper Tiffany Bush said.

“You get an event like this and it just reminds you how precious life is,” Hall said. “Today is just a horrible event.”

The plane, which Bush said appeared to seat five or six people, was in flight just before the crash. It had been taking off at the time, airport officials said.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration registry and Flight Aware, the fixed wing single-engine plane owned by Delaware company Quadrant Investments was bound for Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The runway remained closed Sunday afternoon and will reopen once the National Transportation Safety Board has arrived and removed the wreckage, which could take some time.

Larry Peet, deputy director of the Johnson County Airport Commission, said the airport will be closed for at least 24 hours.

A large stretch of 151st Street, from Pflumm to Quivira, near the airport was also closed.

The FAA and NTSB will take the lead on the investigation.

Crashes at Johnson County Executive Airport

Earlier this month, on Feb. 4, a pilot and passenger sustained minor injuries when the single-engine plane they were flying in crashed into a line of trees near the airport. The Federal Aviation Administration was also called in to investigate that crash.

Prior to Sunday, the last fatal crash at the airport happened on New Year’s Eve of 2019, Hall said.

The pilot and passenger, a man from Arkansas and a woman from Texas, were killed when a small single-engine plane crashed during takeoff.

This story was originally published February 13, 2022 at 2:38 PM.