Global Courant
Small plane pilot and his passenger were killed when the plane crashed and caught fire in western New York
JAMESTOWN, NY — The pilot of a small plane and his passenger were killed on Tuesday when the plane crashed and caught fire shortly after takeoff from an airport in western New York, authorities said.
The Cirrus SR22 was stationed in Oshawa, Ontario, and stopped at an airport in Erie, Pennsylvania, before arriving at Chautauqua County Jamestown Airport, where it was refueled, Sheriff James Quattrone said. The plane crashed about 10 minutes after takeoff from Jamestown.
Witness James Mortimer told The Post-Journal of Jamestown that the plane appeared to be over the runway when it started to spin. He said it crashed seconds after he saw a parachute explode. The small plane was equipped with an airframe parachute, the sheriff said.
“It sloped very steeply, as if it were in a bank. I said, ‘That’s not right. That’s not good,” said Mortimer, who was cycling nearby. “I thought it was going to go down there, but it straightened up again and it turned to the right and flew to the right … Less than two seconds after it popped out of the chute, it was in the ground.”
There was no indication that the pilot was calling for help, Quattrone said. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate, he said.
The names of the victims, both men, were withheld until relatives could be notified, the sheriff said.
