Plane Crash Kills One in Milton

One person is dead, and another is seriously injured after a plane crashed into the driveway of a home in the town of Milton. 

The pilot, Frederick Baber, 58, of Port Charlotte Florida was killed in the crash while the passenger, Alexander Hoff, 39, of Hollis New Hampshire was seriously injured. He was transported to Albany Medical Center with serious injuries. 

The crash occurred on Oct. 31 at 10:24 am in a residential area on Wyndham Way in the Town of Milton. Nine fire departments, three police agencies, Community EMS, Saratoga County Office of Emergency Management and Saratoga County Hazardous Material Team all responded to the crash, according to the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office. 

In a press conference the day of the crash, Saratoga County Sherriff Mike Zurlo said that the plane is believed to have hit a tree and dropped into the driveway of a residence. 

While the crash was initially dispatched as a structure fire with entrapment, responders on scene determined that the fire was limited to outside the residence and that the structure was not impacted. 

The house was occupied at the time, but the residents were not injured and were able to safely evacuate, Zurlo said. 

The aircraft involved in the crash was a Mooney M20E that was originally manufactured in 1964, according to the FAA Aircraft Registration. It is listed as a fixed wing single engine aircraft. It first received its airworthiness certification in December 1964 and its current registration was issued in January 2025. 

The listed owner was not involved in the crash and told other media outlets that he sold the plane the month prior. 

The plane first came to Saratoga County on Oct. 9 according to Flightradar24, a real-time flight tracking service. Its last flight prior to the crash occurred on Oct. 21 with Flightradar24 showing that it circled the Saratoga County Airport for about 13 minutes before landing. The fatal crash on Oct. 31 did not appear on the service’s website. 

The aircraft pilot, Baber was listed as having received his private pilot license in July 2019 with his last listed medical certification coming in July 2025. According to the FAA, Baber had a single engine and instrument rating. His daughter said in a Facebook post that he died doing what he loved. 

Saratoga County hasn’t seen a fatal plane crash since 2014 when a pilot crashed in Gansevoort while attempting to pick up a towable banner, according to the NTSB. The last non-fatal accident occurred in 2023 when a student and instructor were forced to make an emergency landing in a field after running out of fuel. 

As for the Oct. 31 crash, no cause has been issued for the crash, and the NTSB announced that they are currently investigating. 

An earlier version of the story misspelled Frederick Baber’s name. We apologize for the mistake and have since corrected the mistake.