Plane wreckage removal underway at Plainville home
By Melissa Randall
mrandall@abc6.com
Wreckage from the Plainville plane crash that killed the three people on board is in the process of being removed from the property.
The National Transportation Safety Board spent its second day on-scene continuing their investigation and hauling out remnants of the plane, much of which was damaged by the fire.
Removal will be a slow process, and crews are being extra careful not to further destroy crucial evidence.
Two large flat beds were called into to haul away what’s left of the small aircraft that crashed into the Plainville home, killing 3 members of a Tennessee family. Dr. Joseph Kalister, his wife, Betty, and their daughter were heading to Northeastern University when something went terribly wrong. Local, state and federal investigators are now trying to figure out exactly what happened. The NTSB has found internal damage to the largest part of the engine.
NTSB investigator Doug Brazy says, “what we know now is that there is a hole in the crank case of the engine. How that hole got there, what caused it- that’s the part we don’t know yet.”
The engine will be sent to a lab in Delaware and examined. There are a few additional clues, like this distress call made by Kalister to air traffic control moments before the distressed plane flew into 25 Bridle Path.
“We have no engine…I need help.”
The Rice family made it out unharmed, but everyone onboard the aircraft tragically died. The plane wasn’t his, but investigators say Dr. Kalister was an experienced pilot.
“As of April of 2014 he had accumulated 1,500 flight hours of experience.”
Kalister was flying a Beechcraft Bonanza similar to the one pictured on the manufacturer’s website. Beechcraft is made by Textron Aviation, a division of Textron headquartered on Westminster St. in Providence. The Bonanza model has been involved in several notable crashes over the years. ABC6 reached out to Textron for comment but calls were not immediately returned.
The NTSB says there was no ‘black box’ on board. Witness statements will play a big role in the investigation. Preliminary findings are expected within 2 weeks.
(C) WLNE-TV 2015
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