2 killed, 1 injured after plane crashes into home near Hope Mills

Jun. 29--HOPE MILLS -- Investigators with the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board continue working to determine what caused a small twin-engine plane to crash Thursday night into a home near Hope Mills, killing two people and injuring another.

The plane went down about 10:34 p.m., which is when the control tower at Fayetteville Regional Airport called the county's 911 emergency dispatch. The aircraft struck the bedroom end of a double-wide modular home at 4821 Pasadena Ave., a little less than 3 miles southwest of the airport.

"We're still sorting that out a little bit, but we were told they were on an approach to runway 4," said Robert Gretz, a senior air safety investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board.

The Pasadena Avenue residence, which is off Sanders Street, not far from U.S. 301, is within the flight path of planes using Fayetteville Regional Airport.

The pilot and a person inside the home died at the scene, while another person inside the home was hospitalized with serious injuries, the Associated Press reported.

The identities of the people involved in the crash have not been released.

On its website, the Federal Aviation Administration says a Beechcraft E55 model aircraft crashed Thursday near Fayetteville. The fixed wing, multi-engine plane was built in 1979, according to the FAA.

Industrial Power Inc., which is in the 700 block of Whitfield Street, is the registered owner of the plane, according to the FAA website. A spokeswoman at the company declined to comment Friday morning.

Investigators on site

Preliminary FAA findings indicate that the plane had landed at the Fayetteville airport, Gretz said, and had just taken off and was coming around for another landing.

"He did not report any kind of fuel problem," Gretz said. "He reported some kind of control problems."

The cause of the crash remains under investigation. But Gretz, who is based in the Office of Aviation Safety Eastern Division in New Jersey, said it appeared to have been a control issue. Gretz talked with reporters during a brief news conference near the home.

"We received a call late last night, early this morning, that a twin-engine airplane, a Beech E55, more commonly referred to as a Beech Baron, was in the traffic pattern in Fayetteville during takeoffs and landings when the pilot reported some kind of control problem to the air traffic control. And no further communications were received. We were notified by law enforcement that the airplane did strike a home near the approach end for runway 4 at the airport."

After arriving on site a little after noon, Gretz said he had been working with representatives of the FAA, the air-frame manufacturer Textron Aviation and the manufacturer Continental Engines. He said he also has been working with the insurance adjuster and an insurance company that specializes in aircraft recovery.

Gretz said plans call for the wreckage to be moved Saturday to the insurance recovery company's facility in Griffin, Georgia.

"So we can get a better look at it rather than it just being in the backyard of a residence," he said. "We're sort of limited as to what we can do on scene without the equipment and tools, but once it's recovered, we can take a closer look at it."

Several people who live in the area said they heard the crash.

Maurice Allender, 50, and a retired firefighter, said he has lived in the neighborhood for 48 years.

"Me and my girlfriend were watching TV," he said. "You know how a drone sounds when it's taking off, it sounded about 10 times as worse when it went over my house. We heard him throttle it up and then kaboom."

Allender said he called 911 after the plane hit behind his house and then went to the scene. He said he knows the couple who have lived in the modular home for the past several years.

"The house has moved about a foot, foot and a half off its foundation," Allender said. "That was the bedroom where the plane hit."

Another neighbor, 47-year-old Grady Sibbett, lives about 200 yards from where the plane crashed. He said he and a friend were sitting outside Thursday night and saw the plane as it flew over.

"I tell you what it sounded like -- sounded like a Volkswagen backfiring. Pop, pop, pop, pop," Sibbett said Friday. "He come through here and kept going. He was slowly falling. He was low enough that we seen the lights on the landing gear light up."

Sibbett said there was a yellow light inside the cabin, and he saw the pilot sitting up. He could only see the silhouette of one person.

As the plane came over his place, he said, the pilot banked it.

"It was stalling," said Sibbett. "I said that plane's got issues. I'm a mechanic and it sounded like he ran out of gas. And he plowed into that house."

Sibbett said there was no fuel odor around the house when he got there.

"This is one of those things I wish I hadn't seen. I didn't get to sleep until about 8:30 this morning," he said. "This is nerve-racking stuff."

Staff writer Steve DeVane contributed to this report.

Staff writer Michael Futch can be reached at mfutch@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3529.

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