Cause of small plane crash into north Phoenix backyard released in NTSB report

Name: Surveillance cam captures plane crash into 2 north Phoenix homes
Uploaded: 2026-03-30T15:09:29-07:00
Description: New video shows the moments a small plane crashed into two homes in a north Phoenix neighborhood shortly after taking off from Deer Valley Airport.

DEER VALLEY, Ariz. - A preliminary report of a small plane crash that left a flight instructor, student pilot, and a resident injured earlier this month has been released by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

What we know:

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said a Piper PA-28-140 (N7744T) which was flown during an instructional flight, suffered an engine power loss.

The flight instructor reported that the engine RPM dropped to 600-700 RPM and began vibrating. He radioed the airport and told them he was heading back. During the return, the engine reportedly continued to lose power. Just seconds before impact, the engine lost power completely, according to the instructor.

The backstory:

The crash happened at 7:21 a.m. on March 4 near Cave Creek Road and Deer Valley Drive after the plane took off from Phoenix Deer Valley Airport at 7:15 a.m. The report said the airplane traveled 1.5 miles, heading northeast, when the plane took a left turn and began a gradual descent at 7:19 a.m. for roughly 2.8 miles.

The instructor suffered serious injuries, while the student pilot and a man inside a home suffered minor injuries.

A neighbor's home surveillance video captured the plane's descent before it crashed into the roof of a north Phoenix home, also striking the wall of a second home, before landing in the backyard. The neighborhood where the plane crashed is located roughly two miles northeast of the airport.

"The fuselage, along with the left wing, came to rest on the ground at the base of a house in a near-vertical, nose-down attitude on a magnetic heading of approximately 052°," the report said. "The right wing was separated and remained lodged within the roof of the first residence."

Debris of the wreckage included the right-wing flap, the nose landing gear, and pieces of fuselage skin.

Dig deeper:

"It was a big bang. It sounded like, almost like a bomb went off, or someone slammed their trash can really hard," a witness told FOX 10 after the crash happened. "My kids were the first ones to find it, and they looked out the window and saw all the action was already here, so I'm glad everybody's safe."