North Dakota state Rep. Liz Conmy and a pilot were killed Saturday when their small plane crashed and burst into flames in a suburban Minneapolis park, seconds after lifting off from Crystal Airport. Conmy was 67 and a mother of four.
The Beech F33A went down around 11:51 a.m. in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, Fox News reported. Emergency crews found the aircraft engulfed in fire. There were no survivors.
Metropolitan Airports Commission spokesperson Jeff Lea told reporters the plane "couldn't get up in the air" after leaving the runway. The Brooklyn Park Police Department confirmed that Conmy and the pilot were pronounced dead at the scene. The FAA said two people were aboard.
Residents living near the crash site described a jarring scene. Ashley Capp, who lives across the street, recalled the moment of impact.
As the Daily Mail reported, Capp said:
"I was in the house, in my bedroom, and my daughter was eating cereal at the kitchen table, and there was a really loud boom."
Kim Clark, another neighbor whose outdoor surveillance camera captured the crash, described the aftermath:
"We look across the street, and it was a huge flame, huge fire. And then everybody started calling 911, and some people were getting close to see if there were anybody alive."
Clark said the fire grew worse as neighbors approached. "It kind of started to spark, and the flames started to get bigger," she said. "It was scary because it was like, it's really close to my home, and my family stays here."
The crash site, a park in a residential area of Brooklyn Park, sits close enough to Crystal Airport that the plane barely cleared the runway before going down. The proximity to homes and families makes the outcome all the more sobering. Aviation tragedies near populated areas carry risks that extend well beyond the cockpit, as a recent deadly crash involving a Colombian congressman near the Venezuelan border demonstrated.
The New York Post identified the pilot as Joe Cass. The primary source did not name the pilot, and Brooklyn Park police had not publicly released his identity at the time of initial reporting.
State Sen. Tim Mathern, Conmy's running mate, told the Star Tribune that Conmy had a good friend who is a pilot and that she had been flying with them for the past year and a half. A Conmy family member confirmed her death to Mathern.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it is too early to determine what caused the crash. An NTSB investigator was expected to arrive at the scene Sunday "to document the site and examine the airplane." The agency said the aircraft would then be transported to a secure facility for further evaluation.
No mechanical history, weather conditions, or flight plan details have been publicly released. The cause remains an open question, and the NTSB's full investigation could take months.
Conmy, a Democrat from Fargo, had served in the North Dakota House of Representatives since 2022, representing the 11th district. She sat on the Education Committee and was known among colleagues from both parties for her energy and warmth.
North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong confirmed Conmy was one of the victims in a statement released after the crash:
"Kjersti and I are saddened by this tragic loss and offer our deepest condolences to her family, friends and fellow legislators. We ask North Dakotans to join us in keeping them in our prayers."
The North Dakota House Republican Caucus remembered Conmy as someone who "brought not only dedication and integrity to her work, but also a warmth and sincerity that made a lasting impression on everyone who had the privilege of serving with her." That a Republican caucus would issue such a tribute for a Democratic colleague says something about the kind of lawmaker Conmy was.
Rep. LaurieBeth Hager shared a tribute on Facebook, writing that Conmy had sat directly behind her in the chamber for four years.
"She brought a JOYFUL spirit to our caucus, every meeting, and the entire legislative chamber. Liz made me laugh regularly and often, which is much needed during session."
Anastassiya Andrianova, one of Conmy's running mates, posted that Conmy "was a mentor and a role model to me, my husband, and our daughter Freya, whom she knew and adored from birth." Andrianova said she had been looking forward to heading to Bismarck with Conmy.
The North Dakota Democratic-Nonpartisan League Party, in a post on X, called Conmy's death "a profound loss for our state." The party said she championed public education, the environment, and transparency, and noted that "Liz had a natural ability to make friendships across the political spectrum." Newsmax reported the party's full statement, which opened: "We are completely heartbroken and gutted by the loss of Representative Liz Conmy."
Mathern, her running mate and fellow state senator, summed up what many seemed to feel. "She was a very zest-filled person, and we will all miss her," he said.
Conmy's death leaves a vacancy in the 11th district that the state will need to fill. The sudden loss of a sitting lawmaker always carries political consequences, scheduling, committee work, the balance of voices in a chamber. The recent death of Georgia Democrat David Scott widened the GOP's House majority and reminded both parties how thin margins can shift overnight.
In North Dakota's case, the immediate focus from both sides of the aisle has been grief, not gamesmanship. The Republican caucus's tribute, the governor's statement, and the Democratic party's public mourning all point in the same direction: Conmy was respected by the people who worked with her, regardless of party label.
That kind of bipartisan regard is rare enough in American politics that it deserves noting. When lawmakers die in office, the tributes sometimes feel perfunctory. These do not.
As the Associated Press confirmed, both Conmy and the pilot died in the crash, and the NTSB's investigation is now the only path to answers about what went wrong aboard that Beech F33A on a Saturday afternoon.
The questions that remain, what caused the plane to fail so quickly, whether mechanical trouble or some other factor played a role, will take time to resolve. The FAA confirmed two people were aboard. The wreckage sits in a park where neighbors heard the boom, saw the flames, and called 911. The investigation will proceed on its own timeline.
Meanwhile, four children have lost their mother. A state legislature has lost a colleague both parties say they genuinely liked. And a small Democratic caucus in a deep-red state has lost one of the few members who could build friendships across the aisle, a skill that matters more than most politicians care to admit.
Public service carries risks most voters never think about. Liz Conmy's death is a reminder that some of those risks have nothing to do with politics at all.
