Crashed pilot was far from home
|
|
On Monday, police stand by the wreckage of a small plane that crashed in Bennington. Peter Crabtree |
Toolbox
By PATRICK McARDLE STAFF WRITER - Published: October 27, 2009
BENNINGTON — A New Jersey man is dead after his plane crashed on Whipstock Mountain on Sunday, but police don't know why he was in Vermont, according to Bennington Police Chief Richard Gauthier.
Chaim Weiss, 58, of West Milford, N.J., was flying a Cessna 172 registered to Sky Training LLC., of West Milford, N.J., that had taken off from Greenwood Lake Airport in Milford on Sunday for a flight that was supposed to last only two hours, according to Gauthier.
"I spoke with (Weiss') family a little earlier and they're absolutely puzzled as to why he's up here. They weren't able to provide me any information to indicate why he came to this area. They don't know of any reason why he'd be here. So, in essence, what we have is an individual who's probably what, four, five hours out of his way, for reasons we can't determine at this point. But what that does tell us is that he was absolutely unfamiliar with the terrain up here especially in the … dark so he may not have known the proper way to approach and circle this particular airport.
Weiss was the only person in the plane.
There were no other people injured in the crash and no reported property damage.
Gauthier said the plane was found about 500 yards below an airplane beacon on Whipstock Mountain. The flashing beacon may or may not have been working at the time of the crash.
On Monday, police had been asked to secure the site as a crime scene until Tuesday when investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration will be in Vermont. Gauthier said the request was standard procedure to preserve any evidence. There is no indication of criminal activity involved in the crash, according to Gauthier.
Gauthier said while federal investigators look into the plane crash, the Bennington Police Department is in charge of the investigation of the pilot's death.
The investigation began on Sunday around 7:15 p.m. after a number of residents reported seeing a low-flying plane and hearing a crash.
The search went on until around 1:30 a.m. on Monday, Gauthier said, when helicopter pilots decided their efforts were not going to be productive. The pilots were using infrared imaging cameras that Gauthier said would have spotted even a heat source as small as a lit cigarette.
The Bennington Police put out searchers on foot and riding all-terrain vehicles and a truck, but the night was dark enough that it wasn't safe for riders to leave the trail.
The biggest impediment to the search was the extreme darkness and the cold.
"If the conditions had been amenable besides the cold, the cold wasn't prohibitive. It was just another layer of difficulty. It certainly wasn't stopping us. What was stopping us, quite frankly, was the absolute darkness," Gauthier said.
The search resumed around 7 a.m. on Monday.
Gauthier said on Monday a plane flown by employees of the Vermont Agency of Transportation spotted an "abnormality" in the tree cover they believed could have been a site of the crash. The plane had to land to refuel and the New York State Police Aviation Unit was being directed toward the spot.
Before the helicopter could search the area, however, a local resident found the plane. Gauthier said he had received different reports that the person who spotted the plane was a hiker or someone using an all-terrain vehicle, but he believed the person was trying to help police with their investigation by looking for the plane.
It has been at least 20 years since there has been a plane crash in Bennington. In August 2006, an Embraer E-110 cargo plane crashed in Pownal killing its only passenger, William Smith, 47, of Batavia, N.Y.
Bennington Police were assisted in their search by the Vermont State Police, Bennington County Sheriff's Department, Bennington Rural Fire Department and Bennington Rescue Squad, in addition to the New York State Police and Vermont Agency of Transportation.
patrick.mcardle@rutlandherald.com
13