Small plane crashes into houses in US state
Pilot and his son feared dead as aircraft comes down in Connecticut while approaching Tweed New Haven Airport.
Two people are reported to have been killed and others are feared missing after a twin-engine light aircraft crashed into two houses in the US state of Connecticut.
The Rockwell International Turbo Commander 690B crashed on Friday while approaching Tweed New Haven Airport before noon (1600 GMT), the Federal Aviation Administration said.
It was on a short flight from Teterboro Airport outside New York City, it said in a statement.
The aircraft, making an instrument approach in foul weather, hit two clapboard houses in a densely populated section of East Haven, with two children – one about a year old, the other 13 – inside one of the homes.
“We only know we have two victims. We don’t know who. We don’t have ages,” Joseph Maturo, East Haven mayor, told a late-afternoon press briefing.
Media reports in the northwestern US state of Oregon, quoting family members, identified the pilot as Bill Henningsgaard, a retired Microsoft executive who was travelling around the US with his 17-year-old son Maxwell to inspect colleges.
Officials refused to confirm their identity pending the arrival of investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
The Turbo Commander 690B, a light twin turboprop business aircraft, seats seven to 10 passengers and crew in a pressurised cabin.
East Haven, population 30,000, is 130km northeast of New York City, on Long Island Sound.