The two people who died when a small plane crashed on a Massachusetts highway were a married couple who appear to have taken off without filing a flight plan—and without the aircraft’s owners knowing why the plane was being flown.
Thomas Perkins, 68, and his wife, Agatha Perkins, 66, of Middletown, Rhode Island, were killed when their Air Charity Network plane went down on I-195 in Dartmouth during Monday morning rush hour, as wind gusts reached up to 55 mph, according to Boston 25 News.
An unidentified woman suffered non-life-threatening injuries after her silver Hyundai Sonata was nearly destroyed in the crash.
Agatha and Thomas Perkins were both killed in Monday morning’s plane crash.
“The plane may have been attempting to land at New Bedford Regional Airport, though it does not appear that the pilot provided the airport with a flight plan or the number of people aboard,” Massachusetts State Police said in a statement.
The couple had been flying to Kenosha, Wisconsin, in a fixed-wing, single-engine plane registered to the Air Charity Network, the parent organization of several regional “Angel Flight” programs that provide free air transportation for patients traveling to specialized health care facilities, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
However, Air Charity Network’s regional partners in Massachusetts and Wisconsin said the downed plane was not connected to any scheduled flights for their organizations.
“We are all checking with each other to determine which public-benefit flying organization the pilot might have been volunteering for, and that has yet to be determined,” Brendan Sneegas, CEO and executive director of Angel Flight Central, told the Journal Sentinel.
The small plane erupted in flames after crashing onto I-195.
Matthew Neto via Storyful
The aircraft, a single-engine SOCATA TBM 700, is registered to Easton Air LLC, according to FAA records. Both Easton Air and Air Charity Network are based in the Perkins’ hometown of Rhode Island.
Photos from the scene show the charred and mangled plane surrounded by first responders in the highway’s grassy median. State police confirmed that the plane caught fire upon impact.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation, though it occurred amid a severe fall storm hitting the northeastern U.S.
Boston 25 News reported that, because of the ongoing government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration was unable to provide additional details about the incident.
