Two people were killed in a small plane crash Saturday morning in Afton.

Several neighbors near the 15000 block of Afton Hills Boulevard South called 911 shortly before 9:45 a.m. after hearing what they said sounded like a small explosion. When emergency crews arrived, they found a fully engulfed plane that had crashed near a home’s attached garage, according to the Washington County sheriff’s office.

Firefighters extinguished the fire and two bodies were located — an 85-year-old man from White Bear Lake and 68-year-old man from Baytown Township, the sheriff’s office said.

Neighbor Bill McCallum was walking his dog nearby when he heard a high-pitched whine.

“As I looked up I saw it it start to fall,” McCallum said of the plane, adding that it appeared to be falling almost straight down and “sort of spiraling.”

“It was way too close to the ground to be doing that maneuver,” he said.

The plane appeared appeared to pull out of the fall before it went out McCallum’s sightline. He then heard what “sounded like a big impact.”

The crash is being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.

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