A small plane crashed in western New York on Tuesday afternoon, killing two people, officials said.
Authorities said the single-engine Cirrus SR-22 caught fire when it crashed shortly after takeoff from New York’s Jamestown airport. Two adult men were on board when it crashed. Their identity has not been publicly disclosed.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will handle the crash investigation. An NTSB investigator is scheduled to arrive on the scene Wednesday morning.
Chautauqua County Sheriff James Quatroni said during a press conference that officials do not yet know the cause of the accident. The plane fell in a lightly wooded area near a field.
“The crash site, I would say it was a kind of catastrophic failure that prompted them to go into that field area,” Quatron said.
The plane took off from Oshawa, in Ontario, Canada, in the morning, arrived at an airport in Erie, Pennsylvania, and then landed at Jamestown Airport in the afternoon.
thick smoke from Forest fires in Quebec It was blowing across large swathes of the Northeast on Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service. Quatron said he does not believe wildfire smoke played a role in the incident but that it will be subject to NTSB investigators. An NTSB official said reduced visibility can cause problems, but declined to speculate on the circumstances during Tuesday’s accident.
Quattron said there was no indication that the pilot issued a distress call before the crash. Officials believe the plane, which had a 92-gallon engine, was refueled shortly before the crash, which may have contributed to the fire’s intensification.
“Nothing is left of the plane,” Quatroni said. “There are parts.”
Once the NTSB investigator arrives, the crash site and the aircraft will be assessed. An initial report is expected within 2-3 weeks.
The crash came two days after four people died when an unresponsive Cessna Citation plane flew over Washington, D.C., then I landed in Virginia.
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