Fly Lugu Flight School owner, instructor and student killed in western Massachusetts plane crash
GREENFIELD - A flight school owner, instructor, and student pilot were identified Monday as the three people killed Sunday in a small plane crash in western Massachusetts.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is leading the investigation into what caused a twin-engine Beechcraft Baron to go down in the Leyden Wildlife Management Area near Greenfield just before noon Sunday. The site is near the Massachusetts-Vermont border about two hours west of Boston.
Massachusetts State Police identified the victims Monday as 68-year-old William Hampton of Indian Orchard, 53-year-old Frederika Ballard of Southwick, and 29-year-old Chad Davidson of Woodstock, Connecticut.
Ballard was the owner of Fly Lugu Flight School, where Hampton was a flight instructor and Davidson was a student pilot, police said. All three were found dead in the plane, which was owned by the school. They were the only ones on board. Their bodies were removed and brought to the medical examiner's office.
The plane took off from Barnes Airport in Westfield just after 11 a.m. Sunday. Around 11:30 a.m. police said 911 calls started coming in from dog walkers in Leyden and Greenfield "reporting a plane that appeared about to crash."
The wreckage was found around 12:30 p.m. in a small clearing in the woods, police said. The site was guarded by a state trooper overnight and an NTSB investigator was expected to arrive there Monday.
"The investigator will begin the process of documenting the scene and examining the aircraft. The aircraft will then be recovered to a secure facility for further evaluation," NTSB spokesperson Sarah Taylor Sulick said in an email to WBZ-TV. "A preliminary report will be available within 30 days."
The agency is asking anyone who may have surveillance video or information about the crash to contact them at witness@ntsb.gov.
