It was just after 2 p.m. on a quiet Monday in Kalispell, Montana, when the calm over the small regional airport shattered. A single-engine Socata TBM 700 turboprop, carrying a pilot and three passengers, was making its approach after a flight from Pullman, Washington. Witnesses say everything seemed routine—until the landing went wrong.
As the plane touched down at Kalispell City Airport, it began to skid across the runway. Kalispell Fire Chief Jay Hagen later described it as sliding “like a Frisbee.” In seconds, the aircraft veered off its intended path and into an area where several planes were parked.
The moving aircraft struck a stationary plane first, then collided with others nearby. The impacts ripped through the tarmac’s quiet, triggering a fire that rapidly consumed the damaged aircraft. Flames leapt high enough to be seen from nearby streets. Black smoke curled into the sky, visible for miles. The fire spread beyond the tarmac into a grassy patch of the city-owned airport, threatening to grow larger.
Ron Danielson, who manages an inn close to the airport, compared the sound of the crash to “sticking your head in a bass drum and somebody smacking it as hard as they could.” He said the noise was immediately followed by the sight of thick smoke and the flashing lights of emergency vehicles racing toward the scene.
Onboard, all four people somehow managed to escape before the fire fully engulfed the plane. Two of them suffered minor injuries and were treated at the scene. The other two walked away without harm. Authorities confirmed there were no fatalities—something both responders and witnesses called remarkable given the destruction.
Kalispell Police Chief Jordan Venezio said multiple aircraft on the ground were damaged in the blaze. Fire crews from Kalispell, Evergreen, Smith, and Whitefish responded, working alongside police and the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office. The first emergency call came in at 2:08 p.m., and by around 5 p.m., officials had cleared the scene, allowing planes to be moved back to their original positions.
Firefighters were able to contain the flames before they spread further. The quick action likely prevented additional losses. The airport resumed limited operations later that day, but a full assessment of the damage is still underway.
According to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) records, the Socata TBM 700 was owned by Meter Sky LLC of Pullman, Washington. The Independent contacted the company for comment, but no statement has been released.
Both the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are investigating. Preliminary information suggests the pilot lost control during landing, but the exact cause remains unknown. Investigators will examine factors such as weather conditions, aircraft systems, and pilot inputs to understand how a routine landing turned into a chain of collisions and fire.
Aviation safety consultant Jeff Guzzetti noted that such incidents—where a landing plane collides with parked aircraft—happen only a few times a year in general aviation. Kalispell, a city of around 30,000 people located 33 miles southwest of Glacier National Park, is not used to being at the center of national aviation headlines. But for a few tense hours, its small airport was the focus of a massive rescue and investigation effort.
For those on the ground, the sight of multiple planes burning on the tarmac is something they won’t soon forget. And for aviation authorities, the focus now is on learning exactly what went wrong to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
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