VERGENNES, Vt. (WCAX) – It could be up to two years before we know the official cause of a plane crash in Vermont that killed four people from Connecticut.
At a news briefing Tuesday afternoon in Vergennes, federal officials said their main goal is to find out what happened, why it happened and how to prevent accidents like this from happening again.
On Sunday, three adults and a teen flew up from Connecticut for Sunday brunch at the Basin Harbor Club in Ferrisburgh. When they left, the plane crashed into a wooded area at the southern point of the runway, killing everyone on board. That includes pilot Paul Pelletier, 55, of Columbia, Connecticut; and passengers Frank Rodriquez, 88, of Lebanon, Connecticut; Susan Van Ness, 51, of Middletown, Connecticut; and her 15-year-old daughter, Delilah Van Ness.
However, there was no distress call from the plane and it wasn’t discovered until hours later when family members in Connecticut contacted authorities to say the group never returned home.
NTSB investigators arrived at the crash site Tuesday morning and scoured the scene all day.
“This is the initial process of the NTSB. We are just collecting perishable information at the scene to document the scene and then to document anything that might get damaged during the recovery process,” said Kurt Gibson, an NTSB aviation investigator.
Then, they will take the wreck to a facility elsewhere. There, they will investigate the plane for any mechanical malfunctions, the pilot and his history, and the weather conditions on Sunday.
The Piper Arrow has been manufactured since the 1960s. Officials couldn’t tell us how old it was.
They also say older planes like these don’t have a black box like larger commercial airlines.
A preliminary report will likely be out in about two to three weeks but officials say a full investigation could take up to two years.