Small craft came down off St. Mary’s Road; no injuries on ground
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HANOVER TWP. — Two people died after a two-seat plane crashed off St. Mary’s Road in Hanover Township Saturday afternoon, township Police Chief David Lewis confirmed.
One victim was still in the plane and one came down somewhere in the vicinity of the Liberty Hills complex, Lewis added. Both were removed from the scene on Saturday. Their names were not released.
The plane was flying out of the Wyoming Valley Airport. The aircraft came down about 100 feet from where children were on a hayride at Doran’s Farms. Police and emergency crews responded to the scene shortly before 3 p.m.
No one was injured on the ground and there was no damage to cars parked nearby, the chief said.
According to the website FlightAware, which tracks the trajectories and flight paths of aircraft, a plane matching the description of the one crashed off St. Mary’s Road took off from the Wyoming Valley Airport at approximately 2:48 p.m., and its last known location was marked just off St. Mary’s Road. The time of this last known location was listed as 2:51 p.m., according to FlightAware.
According to the FAA’s registration database, that plane, which was identified by its tail number, was a fixed wing single engine plane registered to a Berks County resident. There was no positive confirmation as of Saturday night whether the owner was aboard.
Analysis of the plane’s flight log, also available on FlightAware, indicate that the plane flew in to Wyoming Valley Airport from Hazleton Regional Airport at approximately 12:26 p.m. Saturday.
Several streets in the Liberty Hills development were closed off for several hours, as police and fire crews searched the area for debris and remnants from the plane.
Federal Aviation Administration officials were on scene Saturday afternoon and officials from the National Transportation Safety Board are due to arrive at the scene on Sunday morning.
St. Mary’s Road was closed until about 6:15 p.m.
Ron Hummer lives along East St. Mary’s Road, just up the street from where the plane crashed down. His backyard was part of the search for the victim who was believed to have jumped out of the plane.
“I got a call that a plane crashed near my house, people were concerned that it was in my house,” Hummer said. “I thought it was a joke.”
Hummer said that his wife, who was on her way home from a shopping trip, actually saw the plane go down.
“She couldn’t get through because they closed the road off,” he said. “I guess they found one of the passengers in the backyard.”
Lewis confirmed to reporters that the second victim had been found in the area between St. Mary’s Road and Constitution Avenue, with police tape still blocking off one of the backyards next to Hummer’s home even as everything else opened up in the area.
Hummer said planes flying over his home on their way to and from the airport in Forty Fort are a common sight, but he never would have expected anything like this.
“The scary part is they have the hayrides from noon on,” Hummer said. “From what I understand, when the plane hit, they saw it coming in and everyone took off.”
Autopsies for both victims are scheduled for Tuesday.