{"id":35672,"date":"2026-06-29T07:44:55","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T12:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/?p=35672"},"modified":"2026-06-29T07:44:55","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T12:44:55","slug":"hazen-plane-crash-kills-minot-pilot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/hazen-plane-crash-kills-minot-pilot\/","title":{"rendered":"Hazen Plane Crash Kills Minot Pilot"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Hazen Plane Crash Kills Minot Pilot<\/h2>\n

HAZEN, North Dakota<\/strong> (trfnews.i234.me<\/a>) \u2014 A 67-year-old Minot pilot died Sunday after a plane crashed near Hazen.<\/p>\n

The crash happened at about 1:45 p.m. on June 28, 2026.<\/p>\n

The pilot was flying a 1960 Piper airplane.<\/p>\n

The initial release did not identify the pilot by name.<\/p>\n

Plane Turned Back Toward Runway<\/h2>\n

Witnesses saw the airplane take off from Mercer County Regional Airport.<\/p>\n

A short time later, the aircraft appeared to return toward the runway.<\/p>\n

Its landing gear had been lowered again during the attempted return.<\/p>\n

The airplane then lost altitude and struck the ground near the airport.<\/p>\n

The pilot suffered fatal injuries in the crash.<\/p>\n

Officials reported that the pilot was wearing a seat belt.<\/p>\n

Emergency Agencies Respond<\/h2>\n

The Mercer County Sheriff\u2019s Office responded to the crash scene.<\/p>\n

Hazen Fire Department crews also assisted at the airport.<\/p>\n

Hazen Ambulance personnel joined the emergency response.<\/p>\n

The North Dakota State Patrol also responded and issued the news release.<\/p>\n

Weather conditions were listed as normal when the crash occurred.<\/p>\n

No other occupants were identified in the release.<\/p>\n

Federal Investigation Underway<\/h2>\n

The North Dakota State Patrol and Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the crash.<\/p>\n

The agencies have not announced what caused the airplane to lose altitude.<\/p>\n

The release did not provide details about damage beyond the fatal crash.<\/p>\n

It also did not state whether airport operations were affected.<\/p>\n

More airport information is available from the Mercer County Regional Airport<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Readers can review federal aviation safety information through the Federal Aviation Administration<\/a>.<\/p>\n

North Dakota crash report information is available through the North Dakota State Patrol<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Additional information may be released as the investigation continues.<\/p>\n

I’m Chris Harper, reporting for TRF News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Hazen
Hazen Plane Crash Kills Minot Pilot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A 67-year-old Minot pilot died after a 1960 Piper lost altitude near Hazen. The aircraft was returning to Mercer County Regional Airport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscp_schedule_draft_date":"","_wpscp_schedule_republish_date":"","_wpscppro_advance_schedule":false,"_wpscppro_advance_schedule_date":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[16],"tags":[1791,998,20036,2793,8074,7985,5306],"class_list":["post-35672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-accidents","tag-accidents","tag-crash","tag-hazen","tag-kills","tag-minot","tag-pilot","tag-plane","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35672"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35674,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35672\/revisions\/35674"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}