WPRO News & The Associated Press
Police have tentatively identified the three people killed when their small plane crashed into a Massachusetts home as a Tennessee doctor, his wife and college-age daughter.
Plainville police say they believe the pilot of the Beechcraft BE36 plane that crashed Sunday was Joseph Richard Kalister, an emergency room physician, his wife, Betty, and daughter, Nicole, who was 18 or 19. The family lived in Knoxville.
Police Chief Jim Alfred says the identities are still unconfirmed because of the extent of the injuries. He says the state medical examiner will have to do further testing to make positive identifications.
All four residents of the Plainville home escaped unharmed.
Minutes before the crash, the pilot calmly told an air traffic controller he has no engine power and is gliding in the minutes before impact.
“It sounded like a bomb, it was very, very loud,” said Mary O’Rourke, 16, who lives next door to the home and was on her back deck, getting ready to leave home for a graduation party when the crash occurred at about 5:45 P.M. Sunday.
“When it hit, I could feel the heat on my face,” she said. She and her family and other friends of the family burned out by the blaze and who lost everything set up a “Go Fund Me” account to raise money for clothing and other household items: www.gofundme.com/y4gnmk
The National Transportation Safety Board is leading an investigation, and air safety investigator Doug Brazy said he expects a preliminary report to be completed in 10 to 14 days, while a full report may take a year.
The plane may be removed from the site by Wednesday.
