LEOMINSTER, Mass. (AP) – Federal aviation authorities investigating a fiery small plane crash that killed six people have recovered the plane’s cockpit voice recorder.
“We’re going to be looking into a lot of factors, basically the man, the machine, and the environment,” said Jill Andrews of the National Transportation Safety Board.
The plane crashed into a sheet metal shop Friday, killing a New York City real estate developer and his wife; two interior designers who were renovating the developer’s Martha’s Vineyard vacation home; and the pilot and co-pilot. The couple’s 13-year-old daughter was the only survivor.
All seven people who were working in the sheet metal plant escaped, though one worker suffered burns. He was treated at a hospital and released.
Kevin Bailey, a manager at a nearby automotive chemical manufacturing plant, said he heard the plane over the buzz of his plant’s own machines.
“It sounded like the plane was right on top of our building,” he said.
The Beech King Air 200, a twin-engine turbo prop, left New York’s LaGuardia airport and was scheduled to land at Hanscom Field in Bedford. But the pilot asked for permission to land at Fitchburg Municipal Airport instead, said Jim Peters, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.
“There was no indication of any trouble at that point,” Peters said.
The plane disappeared from radar after being cleared to approach Fitchburg. Flight controllers tried to contact the pilot several times but couldn’t, Peters said.
A few minutes later, the FAA received a call saying the plane had crashed.
Shop manager Michael Poirier said he was sitting at his desk when he heard a noise and ran outside. He found the plane’s wreckage and a girl who appeared to be a teenager.
She was “shaken up,” he said. “She said, ‘My back hurts’ and was asking about her parents.”
Killed were real estate developer Anthony Fisher, 52; his wife, Anne; pilot Robert Monaco, 49; and co-pilot Eric Jacobson, 30. Also killed were interior designers Michael Campanelli, 36, and Thomas Fox, 50, according to a spokesman for Fox-Nahem Design.
Tora Fisher, who survived the crash, was admitted to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester. A hospital spokesman would not release details of her condition, citing a request from relatives.
The Fishers were on their way to visit Cushing Academy, a boarding school Tora planned to attend this fall. Fisher, a well-known developer and philanthropist, graduated from Cushing in 1969 had been a member of the school’s board of trustees for 30 years and was a major benefactor, Headmaster M. Willard Lampe said.
Fisher was chairman and CEO of the Intrepid Museum Foundation. The Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, housed in New York on the decommissioned carrier, will be closed Monday and Tuesday in his memory, a spokeswoman said.
AP-ES-04-05-03 0438EST
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