An airplane pilot instructor and his student died when their plane crashed at Mansfield Municipal Airport on Saturday, authorities say.
The two men were killed after their plane, a Cessna 172, left Horizon Aviation in Norwood at 11:30 a.m. and crashed in Mansfield at 12:30 p.m., authorities say. The plane appeared to have crashed head-on into the runway.
Mansfield police identified the victims as pilot Sydney Miti, 31, of Waltham, and student pilot Julian Lattermann, 18.
Miti, a Ugandan based in USA, was a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certified pilot who worked as a pilot instructor for a flying school in USA.
Massachusetts State Police and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating. The National Transportation Safety Board will determine the cause.
The crash stunned neighbors, some of whom heard a “thump” as the plane came down.
“I saw the helicopters,” said Kevin Haley, 40, of Mansfield. “I came to see and I saw the plane nose- dived.”
According to the FAA, inflight loss of control — mainly stalls — accounts for the largest number of general aviation fatal accidents. Although the fatal accident rate is declining, in fiscal year 2017, a total of 347 people died in 209 general aviation fatal accidents.
NTSB’s aviation accident database shows there have been two nonfatal incidents at the airport, one in 2011 involving an experimental plane that veered off the runway and another in 2004 involving a student pilot who taxied the plane to a closed runway.
Reuters
