NTSB: Engine quit on fatal LI-bound flight

LEVERETT, Mass. - The engine of a Long Island-bound Cessna with four aboard quit minutes before crashing in a Massachusetts meadow, killing one person and injuring three others, investigators said Tuesday.

"The evidence we have right now is it looks like the aircraft was not producing power and the engine was not running at the time," Jose Obregon of the National Transportation Safety Board said at the site Tuesday.

The engine trouble began when the six-seater was about a half hour into a trip Sunday from Keene, N.H., to Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma, at an altitude of about 3,000 feet, Obregon said. "Two minutes later, the engine stopped producing power," he said.

The pilot, Matthew Wilding, "saw the trees, he saw the wires, however, he was not able to have enough altitude or glide power to clear the last power line," Obregon said. The power line the Cessna hit is 72 feet high.

Obregon said there were no gouges in the ground near the plane's propeller, which would be an indication that the motor was still driving the propeller after the crash.

The plane crashed at about 3:50 p.m. Sunday in an open field near rural Leverett, a town of about 1,600 people 35 miles north of Springfield.

Killed in the crash was Robert Lothrop, 62, who recently moved to Stony Brook. Lothrop was an employee of William Schley, 37, chief executive of Airborne Maintenance Inc., a Ronkonkoma repair shop based at MacArthur that owned the aircraft. Schley, Wilding of Stony Brook and Longwood Middle School teacher Dayna DiCamillo, 33, of Miller Place, all were seriously injured in the crash and taken to Bay State Medical Center in Springfield, Mass.

Tuesday, Wilding declined to talk about the crash and was listed in good condition. DiCamillo was in fair condition and Schley was in critical condition, said a hospital spokesman.

So far, Obregon said, the weight on the Cessna U206G, which also was carrying the passengers' belongings, was not believed to have contributed to the crash. Investigators do not believe lack of fuel was a factor, he said.

A pet dog that was on board, an Australian cattle dog named Serena, was found in the woods near the crash, Massachusetts police said Tuesday. She was taken to an animal shelter.

Earlier, authorities said that after the engine began sputtering, Wilding tried to make an emergency landing in the field, but the plane struck high-tension wires and flipped over, falling to the ground upside down.

The plane had twice made routine contact with air traffic controllers after takeoff from Keene, seeking weather advisories. Wilding made no distress call after the engine failed, the FAA said Monday.

The four on the plane were returning from a pleasure trip, said Jon Ross, director of operations for North American Air Charter Inc., which rents space to Schley's company at MacArthur.

The NTSB expects an initial report in about 10 days.

With Michael Amon and Patrick Whittle