Aug 12, 2008 10:08 pm US/Eastern
3 Killed In Plane Crash In Easton Shopping Plaza
EASTON (WBZ) ―
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The Beechcraft Bonanza went down in a remote corner of the Highlands Shopping Plaza at the intersection of routes 123 and 106 around 10:15 a.m.
WBZ
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Joseph Baker of Brookfield, Conn., was pilot of the Angel Flight that crashed Tuesday in a supermarket parking lot in Easton. He and two passengers were killed.
Three people were killed when a small plane carrying a cancer patient to Boston for treatment crashed in a shopping plaza parking lot in Easton Tuesday morning.
The Beechcraft Bonanza went down in a remote corner of the Highlands Shopping Plaza at the intersection of routes 123 and 106 around 10:15 a.m. There were no survivors.
Jim Peters, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, confirmed the plane was operated by
Angel Flight, a non-profit group that flies patients who need to travel for medical treatment but can't afford it.
Police identified the victims as Joseph Baker, 65, of Brookfield, Conn., the pilot; and passengers Robert Gregory, 43, and his wife, Donna, 37, of Riverhead, N.Y.
Amy Camerlin, a spokeswoman for the organization, said Robert Gregory and his wife were being flown to Logan International Airport in Boston so he could be treated at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
"Right now our primary concern is the family," she said. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family."
Police told WBZ's Bill Shields the couple were parents of 4-year-old twins.
Peters said the plane took off from Westhampton Beach on Long Island, N.Y.
The registered owner of the plane is Janet Keene of Brookfield, Conn. Her husband, Kenneth Keene, said she inherited the plane and sometimes hired a pilot so they could use it recreationally, since neither of them could fly it. He said the plane was used by Angel Flight about once a month and he knew about no problems with the aircraft.
An NTSB investigator was headed to the area Tuesday evening.
The plane crashed about 500 feet from the entrance to a Hannaford supermarket, near a road leading out of the lot.
"The plane just did a nose dive straight down," said Easton Deputy Police Chief Allen Krajcik, who saw the plane's final moments.
"Fortunately, it didn't hit any buildings and no one was travelling in the parking lot."
Store manager Arthur Dechellis the plane crashed in an area where people rarely park and no cars were hit.
"I didn't see it, I just heard an explosion," he said. "When I looked outside, it was on fire."
"You could hear a plane then a big boom," Ashmita Kohli, an employee of a Quiznos in the plaza, told WBZ. "It looks like a movie set right now."
Three people were killed in another Angel Flight crash in Tampa, Fla., last month. One of the victims was 15-year-old Tyler McLellan of Waltham.
In the past 12 years, Angel Flight has safely flown more than 53,000 children and adults to medical care on 30,000 flights, according to Camerlin.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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