Plane Crashes into Keene Building

By Trisha Nail
THE KEENE SENTINEL
A single-engine plane flying out of Keene’s Dillant-Hopkins Airport crashed shortly after departure into a multifamily building, killing the aircraft’s two occupants and setting off a multiple-alarm blaze at the crash site on Lower Main Street Friday evening, city officials said.

In a news conference at the airport Saturday morning, Keene Mayor George Hansel confirmed that both occupants of the plane, a single-engine, four-seater Beechcraft Sierra owned by Monadnock Aviation, were killed after crashing into a two-story garage attached to a four-family apartment building at 661 Main St. shortly before 7 p.m.

The occupants were men and were both pilot-rated, said Tim Monville, senior air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, at a news conference Sunday.

The plane departed Keene’s Dillant-Hopkins Airport heading northbound directly on the extended centerline of the airport’s primary runway before crashing, according to Airport Director David Hickling.

Hansel said area fire departments responded to the scene at 6:48 p.m. to a report of an explosion and fire. There were eight people residing in the building at the time of the crash.

Keene Fire Chief Donald Farquhar said the total building size is about 6,000 square feet, prompting fire crews to upgrade to a second alarm and “almost immediately” a third alarm.

He said the rear of the building sustained 20 percent damage, noting that the front of the building is in a “relatively strong shape.”

“The point of impact was somewhat remote from the main part of the house,” he said. “We were able to actually visualize the plane inside of the building at the onset of the incident.”

The NTSB was notified of the crash at about 8:30 p.m. Friday and arrived at the scene at 1:30 p.m. the following day, Monville said Sunday.

He said remnants of the plane, including the engine assembly and small portions of the wings, were located and removed from the structure with the use of a Keene Fire Department ladder truck, and the cockpit and cabin were “nearly consumed” by the fire. The parts that remain will be examined at a nearby facility.

During the preliminary investigation, the NTSB has secured and retained both a pilot logbook as well as audio communications between one of the aircraft’s occupants, which detail that the plane was to remain in a traffic pattern. The tapes contain no indications of things being awry prior to its crash a ½-mile away from the end of runway 2, according to Monville.

“There is no communication from the aircraft about any problem,” Monville said, but, he added, the occupants’ first priority is to fly the plane.

NTSB officials is also performing several interviews, including two with pilot-rated witnesses at the airport.

Monville said two security cameras captured the final portion of the flight and the impact of the crash. The footage includes sound, which will help investigators understand engine RPM prior to the crash into the building, he said.

All residents of the multifamily building were displaced, and the American Red Cross had relocated eight adults as of Saturday morning, according to Farquhar. The building will remain uninhabited until it can be further assessed.

“I think we’re very fortunate,” Hansel said. “ I mean the fact that it hit a building where eight people were living and none of those people were injured is an important detail and we’re very lucky. In combination with our first responders who did their jobs. We’re very fortunate here in the City of Keene to have such professionals who are able to respond to any type of emergency.”

No additional information on the identity of the two occupants, the flight plan and what could have caused the crash was provided.

Scott Gauthier, 44, a resident of 661 Main St. who lives in the rear of the building on the second floor, described his experience of the crash.

“It sounded like something fell, not like a full drop, but something fell and then the building shook,” Gauthier said Friday night at the scene. “It sounded like something hit the parking lot in the back, and all I know is my mom went up to check and started screaming, ‘Get out of the house.’ ”

Gauthier said he could see smoke billowing into the building from his room, and as he exited the building, he looked up to see the roof engulfed in flames. He said those in the building at the time didn’t know a plane hit the building initially but that all were safely cleared from the building before fire crews arrived.

“I could feel the heat of it all the way by my car in the carport … where we were standing,” he said of the intense flames.

Gauthier said the collapsed structure, which he called the barn, housed maintenance equipment for the building.

“It was hotter in the back of the barn,” Gauthier said. “[The fire] was starting to spread toward the front of [the barn] and more towards the apartments, but I don’t think it reached the apartments by the time [firefighters] got here.”

He said a neighbor called emergency services and believes first responders arrived about 10 to 15 minutes after the crash happened. Fire crews allowed him beyond police tape cordoned off around the building and the neighboring Hope Chapel at about 8:30 p.m.

“From what I can see it didn’t look like it got into our apartment, but I’m being hopeful,” Gauthier said. “There’s a little shed across from our apartment and it doesn’t look like it was touched all that much, at least not in the front part, but maybe in the back more towards the barn.”

The three-alarm fire was contained at 8:47 p.m., Farquhar said.

The Federal Aviation Administration and NTSB are investigating. Monville said he will prepare a preliminary report on the crash. A factual report will follow in 18 to 24 months, after which the NTSB board will make a determination of the cause.

This is a developing story. The Sentinel will update this with additional information as soon as it becomes available.

Trisha Nail can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1436, or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @byTrishaNail.

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