chperplt
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Pilot dies in Island Air plane crash on Nantucket
NANTUCKET - An Island Air flight crashed early today while landing at the airport on Nantucket, injuring its sole passenger and killing the pilot, according to the Massachusetts State Police and U.S. Coast Guard.
David Riggs, 59, of Rochester was killed in the crash, state police said, and his female passenger Leslie E. Goodspeed, 47, of Osterville was injured. Goodspeed was taken to Nantucket Cottage Hospital with multiple fractures, then flown by Coast Guard helicopter to Boston Medical Center, the Coast Guard said. Her condition was not immediately known. At 11:15 a.m., she was still being evaluated there.
Both were employees of Island Air, said Nantucket Airport assistant manager Jo-Ann Norris.
Island Airlines Flight 400 left Barnstable Municipal Airport at 5:06 a.m. on its usual trip to deliver daily newspapers to the island, Norris said. Television footage showed the crumpled Cessna 402 next to a runway, its fuselage torn open and newspapers scattered for hundreds of feet around the crash site, about a quarter to half a mile to left of Runway 24. After crashing, the plane caught fire. .
Just before the crash, air traffic controllers had cleared Riggs to land the 10-seat Cessna-402 on Nantucket Memorial Airport's Runway 24 by an instrument, not visual, approach, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The plane crashed about 5:35 a.m., according to State Police Sgt. David Paine, who said initially that Riggs apparently lost control and the plane slid along the runway until it struck an embankment.
Both Riggs and Goodspeed were taken to Nantucket Cottage Hospital with serious injuries that, in Riggs' case, were viewed as life-threatening. At 6:30 a.m., the hospital asked the Coast Guard for an emergency evacuation. Due to the weather, commercial air evacuation flights were grounded. A Jayhawk rescue helicopter picked up Goodspeed at 7:45 a.m. at the hospital and was ferried her to Boston Medical Center by 8:30 a.m.
Norris was uncertain about what might have caused the accident.
"It was dark and it was somewhat foggy, and that might have had something to do with it," she said.
At 8:15 a.m., winds were southeast at 10 miles per hour with two miles visibility.
The exact cause of the crash is still unknown. Federal Aviation Administration personnel were at the crash scene, Paine said. Nantucket Airport was closed due to the crash until 8:30 a.m.
Today's crash was the second fatal air crash in a month on Cape Cod and the islands.
On August 26, a Colgan Air pilot and co-pilot died when their 19-seat Beechcraft 1900D nose-dived into the ocean in view of boaters and swimmers near Great Island in Yarmouth.
Killed were pilot Scott A. Knabe, 39, of Cincinnati, and co-pilot Steven Dean, 38, of Euless, Texas who had just taken off from Barnstable Municipal Airport. No passengers were on board the flight en route to Albany.
NANTUCKET - An Island Air flight crashed early today while landing at the airport on Nantucket, injuring its sole passenger and killing the pilot, according to the Massachusetts State Police and U.S. Coast Guard.
David Riggs, 59, of Rochester was killed in the crash, state police said, and his female passenger Leslie E. Goodspeed, 47, of Osterville was injured. Goodspeed was taken to Nantucket Cottage Hospital with multiple fractures, then flown by Coast Guard helicopter to Boston Medical Center, the Coast Guard said. Her condition was not immediately known. At 11:15 a.m., she was still being evaluated there.
Both were employees of Island Air, said Nantucket Airport assistant manager Jo-Ann Norris.
Island Airlines Flight 400 left Barnstable Municipal Airport at 5:06 a.m. on its usual trip to deliver daily newspapers to the island, Norris said. Television footage showed the crumpled Cessna 402 next to a runway, its fuselage torn open and newspapers scattered for hundreds of feet around the crash site, about a quarter to half a mile to left of Runway 24. After crashing, the plane caught fire. .
Just before the crash, air traffic controllers had cleared Riggs to land the 10-seat Cessna-402 on Nantucket Memorial Airport's Runway 24 by an instrument, not visual, approach, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The plane crashed about 5:35 a.m., according to State Police Sgt. David Paine, who said initially that Riggs apparently lost control and the plane slid along the runway until it struck an embankment.
Both Riggs and Goodspeed were taken to Nantucket Cottage Hospital with serious injuries that, in Riggs' case, were viewed as life-threatening. At 6:30 a.m., the hospital asked the Coast Guard for an emergency evacuation. Due to the weather, commercial air evacuation flights were grounded. A Jayhawk rescue helicopter picked up Goodspeed at 7:45 a.m. at the hospital and was ferried her to Boston Medical Center by 8:30 a.m.
Norris was uncertain about what might have caused the accident.
"It was dark and it was somewhat foggy, and that might have had something to do with it," she said.
At 8:15 a.m., winds were southeast at 10 miles per hour with two miles visibility.
The exact cause of the crash is still unknown. Federal Aviation Administration personnel were at the crash scene, Paine said. Nantucket Airport was closed due to the crash until 8:30 a.m.
Today's crash was the second fatal air crash in a month on Cape Cod and the islands.
On August 26, a Colgan Air pilot and co-pilot died when their 19-seat Beechcraft 1900D nose-dived into the ocean in view of boaters and swimmers near Great Island in Yarmouth.
Killed were pilot Scott A. Knabe, 39, of Cincinnati, and co-pilot Steven Dean, 38, of Euless, Texas who had just taken off from Barnstable Municipal Airport. No passengers were on board the flight en route to Albany.
