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By Mandy Taheri
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A small plane crashed on Equinox Mountain in Manchester, Vermont, on Wednesday morning, with all three people onboard reported alive, Scott Murphy, the town's manager, has told Newsweek.
The Context
The incident comes amid ongoing safety concerns about flying in North America. Over the past two months, there have been at least four major aviation incidents, which have increased Americans' hesitancy about flight safety.
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President Donald Trump's administration is currently under scrutiny for letting hundreds of probationary Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees go only weeks after the deadliest U.S. crash in decades.
Most of the recent reported flight accidents and crashes are related to small aircraft, including ones in Arizona and Texas, however, an American Airlines regional jet collided with a Sikorsky UH-60 helicopter near Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington D.C. in late January, killing all 67 people onboard.
What To Know
Murphy told Newsweek that the small plane crashed amid "early morning fog."
Tom Pine of AccuWeather told Newsweek that "when you get up to 2,000 and 3,000 feet, the clouds were pretty thick" in the area. He mentioned that there weren't notable winds or precipitation.
Given the location of the crash on the mountain and the "very tough terrain," emergency responders "had a difficult time getting to them."
Murphy described the location as a "really steep pitch, with lots of snow and ice on the ground."
The Manchester Police Department confirmed in a press release that the Manchester Communication Center received an emergency call around 8:33 a.m. reporting the plane crash and that three individuals involved "had non-life-threatening injuries."
The local NBC affiliate identified the plane as a single-engine Piper Cherokee Charger, which holds a maximum of four people. Flightradar24 showed that the aircraft departed from Baltimore early on Wednesday morning before crashing in Manchester.
The rescue teams used various routes to reach the crash site, some partially traveling up the mountain access road and continuing by snowmobile and others through the woods. The police department's press release noted that the rescue crews "faced extremely difficult conditions, navigating through snow up to four feet deep near the top of the mountain," reaching the site around 10:15 a.m. Helicopters were requested.
Murphy said that two helicopters, one from Dartmouth, New Hampshire, and the other from New York, located the three passengers. The helicopters then had to "return to refuel," Murphy said, and they would return to hoist up the individuals.
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The Fire Department of Rutland, Vermont, posted on Facebook that "eight of our members trained in technical rescue are in Manchester, preparing to provide assistance with any technical rescue requirements."
All three individuals were lifted to the Manchester Public Safety Facility on Wednesday. "One patient was subsequently airlifted to Albany Medical Center for further evaluation," the press release reads.
Manchester is a small town in Bennington County, in southern Vermont.
Update 2/26/25, 1:20 p.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Scott Murphy and additional information.
Update 2/26/25, 1:34 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
Update 2/26/25, 3:37 p.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Tom Pine and a statement from the Manchester Police Department.
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