Doctor killed in plane crash outside of Moose Lake

One man is dead after an airplane crashed into the Moose Horn River Wednesday, May 8, after taking off from Moose Lake Carlton County Airport during winter weather.

Dr. Thomas Stillwell, 65, of Plymouth died in the plane crash. A pilot, Stillwell was about to return to the Crystal airport that afternoon in a heavy snowstorm. He was a urology specialist and had been seeing patients at Mercy Hospital that day, as he had twice a month for 16 years.

According to a press release from the Carlton County sheriff’s office, at approximately 7 a.m. Thursday, May 9, the Mooney M20J single-engine airplane was located crashed and partially submerged in the Moose Horn River, a short distance northwest of the end of the Moose Lake airport runway.

Law enforcement and others had been searching for the plane since Wednesday night after the Carlton County sheriff’s office received a call from the Federal Aviation Administration about an overdue flight.

The flight plan was filed with a 4:30 p.m. departure from Moose Lake Carlton County Airport with the destination as the Crystal airport. The flight was scheduled to land in Crystal at 5:15 p.m. The plane was never picked up on radar at either the Duluth or Minneapolis airport towers.

Although the spring snowstorm Wednesday ruled out an airborne search of the area, the initial land search was started by the Carlton and Pine County sheriff’s offices with the assistance of the St. Louis County Rescue Squad, Minnesota State Patrol, Civil Air Patrol, and the Moose Lake and Willow River fire departments. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are conducting an investigation of the crash.

In an interview from 2016 for Minnesota Flyer magazine, Dr. Stillwell said, “I love to fly. I think being a pilot is part of your genetics. It’s somewhere deep in you that, once it gets tapped, it’s kind of hard to resist. You must feed this need. If you don’t, you are not happy.”

A veteran, Stillwell had a heart for other veterans and was very active in the veteran community. He is remembered for organizing an annual flight experience for World War II veterans. He rounded up other pilots to volunteer and took more than a hundred veterans to areas all over Minnesota.

“He wanted to make sure that they had a good day and thank them for their service,” said Tim Franklin, publisher of the Minnesota Flyer and Moose Lake Star Gazette, as well as three other newspapers. He is part owner of the Pine Knot News.

Stillwell is survived by his wife Virginia, four adult children, six grandchildren, and four siblings and their spouses. Services were May 14.