At around 6:48 6:18 a.m. yesterday morning in Anchorage, Alaska, a licensed pilot named Doug Demarest died after he crashed a single-engine Cessna 172 into the offices of Dorsey & Whitney, where his wife was an associate/soon-to-be partner. Well, technically, he swiped the six-story building, which ripped off his wing and forced the plane to crash into a neighboring building.
At this point, details are very sketchy and any attempt to explain what happened that morning would be pure speculation. He may have been rehearsing his Top Gun tower buzz. But, he also might have tried to deliberately take out his wife’s office. We don’t know, but the FBI has seized control of the investigation from the NTSB, which certainly sounds like someone sees this as a possible attempted murder. [UPDATE: This theory has since been rejected.]
Thankfully, Demarest’s wife wasn’t at the office at the time [UPDATE: We’ve edited this passage for length]:
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The pilot’s wife… is an attorney who worked on the sixth floor of the building first struck by the plane, the Brady Building, at 1031 W. Fourth Ave. The crash occurred about 6:48 a.m. She was not at work at the Anchorage office of Dorsey and Whitney, a national law firm.
The scene looked horrific, as this Alaska Dispatch News video shows:
The firm asked its employees to stay home after the crash and issued the following statement:
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“Based on the very limited facts we have, we believe it was a personal tragedy and a tragedy for this family,” said Bryn Vaaler, chief marketing officer with Dorsey and Whitney’s office in Minneapolis. “She is a valued employee and is obviously involved in a personal tragedy, so that’s all I can tell you.”
A disturbing story to say the least. Whatever happened, thankfully Demarest’s crash did not cause any other fatalities.
Plane crashes into Anchorage office building; pilot killed [Alaska Dispatch News]