Connecticut Plane Crash Kills Two

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By Pervaiz Shallwani, Tamer El-Ghobashy, Ted Mann, and Joseph De Avila

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UPDATED |  A small plane has crashed into two houses in East Haven, Connecticut, killing at least two people, officials said.

Up to three more people are still missing, officials said.

The pilot, Bill Henningsgaard, and his son, Maxwell, both from Washington State, were on the plane when it crashed, said the pilot’s brother, Blair Henningsgaard, 61, of Astoria, Ore.

He believes both are dead, but they have not received any official confirmation yet, Mr. Henningsgaard said.

“We would be very surprised if anybody was on the plane other than my brother and Maxwell,” he said.

The father and son were visiting the east coast to visit colleges,  Mr. Henningsgaard said.

William Henningsgaard, known as Bill, took up flying in the years after his retirement from Microsoft, his brother said. The Rockwell International 690B that he was flying was his brother’s third plane.


EPA
A view of the wreckage. Watch Worldstream footage from reporters at the scene at the end of the post.

“I would describe him as being a very careful and diligent pilot,” Mr. Henningsgaard said. “He was a very intelligent, careful and thoughtful person.”

In 2009, Bill Henningsgaard was involved in another plane crash, his brother said. The pilot  wrote a first-person account of the experience.

East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo said earlier that a 13-year-old and a one-year-old, who were in the plane, were missing. But later in the day, during a 5 p.m. news conference, he seemed to backtrack on his words, saying that no ages had been confirmed and that federal authorities needed to investigate.

“We only know we have two victims. we don’t know who, we don’t know the ages. The house is still unstable. We really can’t get into the basement to do the investigation that is necessary,” Mr. Maturo said.

There were anywhere from one to three people  in the plane, Gov.  Dannel Malloy said.

“We presume there’s going to be a very bad outcome for two people reported to be in the house and at least the pilot of the plane,” said East Haven Fire Chief Doug Jackson.

There was “total devastation in the back of the home,” Mr. Maturo said, adding the houses, at 64 and 68 Charter Oak Avenue, were “fully destroyed.”

The mother of the missing children, who was home at the time of the accident, was talking to a priest, Mr. Maturo said.

The other house was not occupied at the time of the accident.

Maria Fatone, 38, who lives two blocks east of the crash site, said she was outside her home with her dog when she saw the plane sputtering overhead heading west toward Tweed New Haven airport, about one mile away.

“I was out with my dog. I seen the plane. It circled twice like it was coming in. It was puttering, hesitating. It was almost like the motor stopped,” Ms. Fatone said. “It was teetering like a seesaw back and forth. It was not good.”

Another two to three seconds went by and the plane was out of sight. She turned to go into her home because planes “always fly in low over here. You do get used to it after a while.”


Reuters
A fire fighter looks at the remains of a burnt home at the plane crash site in East Haven, CT.

“As soon as I walked in my house, I heard an explosion. I was like wow what was that? My whole house shook. That’s when I came out and seen nothing but clouds of black smoke,” Ms. Fatone said.

A man whose father lives next door to the accident scene said he rushed over when he heard about it to check on his father. He said his father heard the explosion and left his home, safely.

“It looks like they’re gone,” the man said of the two homes that were hit. “It looks like the insides were gutted.”

The man, who declined to give his name, said authorities cordoned off the area and ordered the people in the immediate area of the accident to leave to their homes. He said the flames had been extinguished by early afternoon.

The Federal Aviation Administration said that the plane was a Rockwell International Turbo Commander 690B, which is a multi-engine turbo prop aircraft that runs on jet fuel.

The plane took off from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey at 10:49 a.m. The pilot was attempting to land the plant at the southern runway at Tweed New Haven, said Lori Hoffman-Soares, the destination airport’s manager.


Evan Lips/Register
Crews at the scene of the plane crash in East Haven.

“All we know is that it missed the approach and continued on. There were no distress calls. As far as we know everything was operational on the airport. It was in communication with air traffic control,” Ms. Hoffman-Soares said.

The pilot apparently made one unsuccessful attempt to land before trying again, Mr. Malloy said.

“It appears that there was a first approach. For whatever reason that approach was not executed. It appears that there was a second go around. It then appears as the though the crash took place at that point,” Mr. Malloy said.

It crashed on approach at 11:25 a.m. There was no distress call issued, officials said.

FAA records show the plane was registered to the firm Ellumax Leasing, LLC, of Medina, Wash. The firm’s owners, William Henningsgaard and Susan Sullivan, could not immediately be reached for comment. A woman who answered the phone at a number listed for Ellumax hung up on a Journal reporter on Friday.

Mr. Henningsgaard is profiled on a website devoted to former employees of Microsoft Corp., where records show he previously worked. According to the profile, after leaving Microsoft in 2002, Mr. Henningsgaard helped to found Eastside Pathways, a Bellevue, Wash.-based nonprofit that assists students with reading and career preparedness.

FAA records show a 1978 Cessna previously registered to Mr. Henningsgaard and his wife, Susan Sullivan. The registration was cancelled in 2009, according to FAA records, when the plane was “exported” to Canada.

The National Transportation Safety Board said Friday it would send a team to investigate the crash.

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