(Newswire.net — June 29, 2015) — Plainville, Mass. – A small Beechcraft BE36 airplane crashed into a home 30 miles southwest of Boston on Sunday afternoon. Although the house immediately caught fire, the residents were able to escpae and were unharmed. All three people onboard the airplane, a Beechcraft “Bonanza”, are reported killed, police said.
The aircraft had departed from the Lancaster Pennsylvania airport and was headed to Norwood Memorial Airport in Massachusetts, said Jim Peters of the federal Aviation Administration in the Boston Globe interview. Enroute, the general aviation aircraft crashed at about 5:45 pm, striking the Victorian two-story house near Boston, he said.
The piston-powered plane crashed into the pale yellow, two-story home at 25 Bridle Path. An FAA investigation into the cause is currently underway at the crash site.
“It is a miracle that the four occupants [of the house] were able to escape given the extensive damage to their home,” said State Fire Marshal Stephen D. Coan.
According to neighbors, a family of four, including small children, live in the house. Luckily none of them were injured in the crash, even though the house suffered substantial damage to the roof and second story.
“I was making a barbecue in my yard when I heard an airplane approach,” an eye-witness, Mike Brown, told the Sun Chronicle. He saw the airplane flying low heading towards the neighbor’s house. According to Brown, the engine was making odd sounds. The airplane abruptly started to bank, then smashed into the house. A Large explosion quickly followed and the house then caught fire.
The cause of the tragedy is still unclear. The NTSB is at the plane crash site and investigators are interviewing witnesses.
According to aviation experts, the sudden banking indicates the aircraft stalled, or lost lift, causing the loss of control.
The identities of the dead won’t be released until NTSB has notified their families, Peters said.