Plane crashes into Denton County neighborhood
12/04/2002
From Staff Reports
A pilot died early Wednesday when his small, twin engine plane crashed in the town of Shady Shores in Denton County.
Lake Dallas police told WBAP radio (820 AM) no one on the ground was injured. The name of the pilot was withheld pending notification of next of kin.
WFAA-TV
Investigators look for clues in the wreckage.
Richard Kersten said he was literally bounced out of his bed at 6 a.m. when the plane went down in his thickly wooded neighborhood. He looked out the window and saw the wreckage of the plane outside a neighbor's house.
Mr. Kersten ran down the street to find that the plane had been nearly disintegrated by the impact. "There was fuel all over the place down there, and just bits and pieces of the plane; you couldn't even tell it was a plane," he said. "The engine was out in the middle of the road, but there was hardly anything left of it."
Most of the wreckage skidded to a stop just before it reached the house of Mr. Kersten's neighbors, a woman and her son, although some debris ended up in a bedroom. They were not injured.
Also Online
Video: Cynthia Vega reports
The crash location, in the 500 block of Lakeshore Road, is just west of Lewisville Lake and near the Hidden Valley Airpark, a residential community adjacent to a landing strip. It was cloudy and rainy at the time of the accident.
The plane involved in the crash is a Cessna 402, a twin-engine propeller-driven aircraft operated by Texas Air Freight of Denton.
The company said the pilot was carrying cargo from Denton to Dallas Love Field when he radioed that he was having trouble maintaining his position.
The plane dropped off radar screens a short time later.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators are working to determine the cause of the crash.
The Cessna model has a range of 875 nautical miles.
Read more on this story in Thursday's Dallas Morning News.
WFAA-TV reporter Cynthia Vega and WBAP reporter Jim Ryan in Shady Shores and the Dallas Web staff contributed to this report.
12/04/2002
From Staff Reports
A pilot died early Wednesday when his small, twin engine plane crashed in the town of Shady Shores in Denton County.
Lake Dallas police told WBAP radio (820 AM) no one on the ground was injured. The name of the pilot was withheld pending notification of next of kin.
WFAA-TV
Investigators look for clues in the wreckage.
Richard Kersten said he was literally bounced out of his bed at 6 a.m. when the plane went down in his thickly wooded neighborhood. He looked out the window and saw the wreckage of the plane outside a neighbor's house.
Mr. Kersten ran down the street to find that the plane had been nearly disintegrated by the impact. "There was fuel all over the place down there, and just bits and pieces of the plane; you couldn't even tell it was a plane," he said. "The engine was out in the middle of the road, but there was hardly anything left of it."
Most of the wreckage skidded to a stop just before it reached the house of Mr. Kersten's neighbors, a woman and her son, although some debris ended up in a bedroom. They were not injured.
Also Online
Video: Cynthia Vega reports
The crash location, in the 500 block of Lakeshore Road, is just west of Lewisville Lake and near the Hidden Valley Airpark, a residential community adjacent to a landing strip. It was cloudy and rainy at the time of the accident.
The plane involved in the crash is a Cessna 402, a twin-engine propeller-driven aircraft operated by Texas Air Freight of Denton.
The company said the pilot was carrying cargo from Denton to Dallas Love Field when he radioed that he was having trouble maintaining his position.
The plane dropped off radar screens a short time later.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators are working to determine the cause of the crash.
The Cessna model has a range of 875 nautical miles.
Read more on this story in Thursday's Dallas Morning News.
WFAA-TV reporter Cynthia Vega and WBAP reporter Jim Ryan in Shady Shores and the Dallas Web staff contributed to this report.
