Perkasie plane crash: Airplane was heading for rarely used airstrip before crashing in neighborhood
PERKASIE, Pa. - The owner of a small, rarely used airstrip just south of where a single-engine plane crashed in a Perkasie neighborhood killing both aboard said he was not aware of the pilot's plan to land.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) continued to survey the crash site hours after a Beech 35-C33 plane crashed near the intersection of Victoria Lane and Brittany Lane around 5 p.m. Thursday.
According to a report from the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), the small plane with two aboard took off from Doylestown Airport with a destination of Gunden Airstrip.
Gunden is a bumpy plot of land that happens to have an FAA-certified landing strip. The owner of Gunden told FOX 29 that only a handful of planes have used the private strip in his 20 years of ownership.
The owner of Gunden Airstrip said only a few planes have landed their in his 20-years of ownership.
FAA records show the plane belonged to a Philadelphia man, but it did not say if he was aboard the aircraft during the fatal crash. The two killed have not been identified.
An NTSB investigator told reporters Thursday that the plane was a commercial instructional flight with one person onboard training for their commercial pilot's license.
No one on the ground was hurt, but the crash sent flying debris through the wall of a home and into a second-floor bedroom.
Hilltown Township Police Officer Christopher Englehart called the pilot a hero for managing to avoid homes that dotted the residential neighborhood.
Residents recalled hearing the plane's engine cut out as it made its deadly descent. A neighbor several houses away caught the fiery wreck on her doorbell camera.
"I thought I was going to die, I thought the plane was coming down in my house," Catherine LaPat said.
Investigators have not provided an official cause of the crash and plan to provide a report in about 10 days.
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