Boston Herald
PLAINVILLE, Mass. — A small plane crashed through a Plainville colonial home yesterday — setting the house on fire and apparently killing three people aboard the plane but miraculously sparing the home’s four residents before it slammed into the hill out back, authorities said.
“I heard what sounded like a loud backfire and sputtering. I heard a loud explosion. The house was engulfed,” said Eric Takach, who lives a few houses up the street.
“The plane hit the back of the house and then exploded. I ran down and they were standing in the front yard.
“Thank God, all four got out OK. We’re just getting over the shock and awe of what happened,” Takach said of the family.
The Beechcraft BE36 aircraft crashed into the house about 5:45 p.m. yesterday, said Jim Peters of the Federal Aviation Administration. It was believed to have taken off from Lancaster Airport in Pennsylvania, headed for Norwood Memorial Airport.
The occupants of the plane were not immediately identified. The family, which took shelter in a neighbor’s home, declined to speak to reporters.
The plane wound up behind the burning two-story colonial, where a section of the tail and a charred wing rested on a hillside in the yard. Fire crews extinguished the blaze in the two-story wood-frame house nearly three hours after the crash.
State police spokesman David Procopio said there were believed to be three people on board, though Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey said, “Until they go through all the wreckage, we can’t confirm that there were three casualties.”
State Fire Marshal Stephen Coan called the crash of a plane into a home rare, adding, “The miracle today is that the four occupants of that home were able to safely escape.”
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