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Man dead, two injured after Conn. plane crashes

One of the crash victims walked to a nearby home to contact police, who said that the flight appeared to be a training flight

Connecticut Post

NEW MILFORD, Conn. — A flight instructor is dead and two people are injured after a plane from Danbury Municipal Airport crashed at Candlelight Farms Airport, officials said.

Authorities with the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed that the plane, a Cessna 172, departed Danbury Airport and crashed at the end of the runway in New Milford.

New Milford Police Sgt. Lee Grabner said that the flight appeared to be a training flight.

Grabner said one of the crash victims, an injured man, walked to a nearby home and the homeowner called police around 9:50 a.m. Police arrived at the airport within minutes. The man was taken to Danbury Hospital by ambulance.

Officers who responded to the crash found two people trapped inside the plane, police said. The pilot, a female who has yet to be identified, was extricated from the plane and taken by Life Star helicopter to Hartford Hospital with life threatening injuries. The co-pilot was also trapped and was presumed dead.

Grabner said the man who died was the flight instructor. Police have yet to release the identities of people in the plane noting that family members of those involved are still being notified.

The plane’s registration number, obtained through photos of the crash scene, appears to show that the plane is owned by Arrow Aviation, a flight training school in Danbury that was involved in a fatal plane crash last month.

Mark Stern of Redding died from injuries he sustained after crashing a Cessna 172 on July 30 that, according to authorities, was rented from Arrow Aviation. Two passengers were also injured in the crash, which is still under investigation by federal authorities.

Preliminary results of that investigation showed that the plane piloted by Stern began to lose altitude shortly after take off. The plane crashed in a wooded area near the runway. The accident happened just two weeks after the plane had received its annual inspection.

A woman who answered the phone at Arrow Aviation on Friday declined to comment on either crash.

“We’re not able to talk about it,” she said.

The Cessna 172 is a single-engine four-seater that is one of the most popular aircraft in general aviation for flight instruction.

According to Litchfield County Dispatch, other local first responders were sent to the crash, including Sherman Fire, Sherman Ambulance, Bridgewater Ambulance and Medic 4 paramedics.

For more aerial photographs of the crash check out NBC Connecticut.

Reporters Dirk Perrefort, Barry Lytton and Mackenzie Rigg contributed to this report.

Copyright 2017 Connecticut Post

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