NTSB: As Many as 6 Dead in Conn. Plane Crash

By Meghan Evans, Meteorologist

August 9,2013; 9:30PM,EDT

 

 

 

A turbo-prop plane crashed into two homes in East Haven, Conn., around 11:25 a.m. EDT Friday, killing as many as six people, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board said late Friday.
The plane, a Twin Commander, was found inverted with its left wing in one house and the right wing in the other, NTSB Senior Air Safety Investigator Bob Gretz said. As many as three people were in the plane and three others in one of the houses at the time of the crash.
At the time of the crash, there was a line of showers and thunderstorms between Teterboro, N.Y., and New Haven, Conn.
"It looks like there was a gusty, heavy shower in the approach to the runway," AccuWeather Expert Senior Meteorologist Henry Margusity said.
A radar snapshot at 11:25 a.m. EDT Friday shows the showers and thunderstorms that were around at the time of the crash.
A wind gust of 21 mph was recorded at Tweed-New Haven Airport at 11:26 a.m. EDT Friday with light rain and a visibility of 9 miles. In any heavier showers or thunderstorms nearby, the visibility could have been much lower.
"We're looking into that [the weather]," Gretz said during a Friday night news conference. "We plan to talk with [the controllers in] the control tower. There was no distress call."
Part of the plane went into a basement and up to 60 percent of the plane was destroyed in a fire, Gretz said.
A responder surveys the scene of a small plane crash, Friday, Aug. 9, 2013, in East Haven, Conn. The multi-engine, propeller-driven plane plunged into a working-class suburban neighborhood near Tweed New Haven Airport, on Friday. (AP Photo/Fred Beckham)
Before the crash, the plane added fuel at Teterboro, N.Y., Airport, Gretz said. There were no anomalies in the fuel, he said.
Connecticut State Police were assisting with the investigation and the recovery effort, Gretz said.
East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. said the mother of two children who were inside one of the homes was taken to a local hospital.
"All things considered, she's devastated," Maturo said. "How would any mother be?"
It may take up to a year for the NTSB to determine the probable cause of the crash.