Lawrence Marchiony, 41, of Baldwinville, was killed along with Marvin David Dezendorf, 60 years old, of Townshend, VT, in the crash, Keene town officials said. Police said both men were experienced pilots, but they do not know who was flying at the time of the crash.
Investigators said the two men were aboard a single-engine plane that took off from Keene Dillant-Hopkins Airport in Keene, NH, just after 6:45 p.m. A few minutes later, the plane slammed into a multi-family building just south of Route 101 — less than a mile from the runway — and sparked a fire. No one was injured inside the homes, but investigators said the houses were destroyed in the three-alarm blaze.
The NTSB and FAA are investigating the cause of the crash.
Jason Mason, who lives in Keene, told Boston 25 that he heard the plane hitting trees before it hit the building.
“It sounded like it went into a couple of trees, and then you hear this big metallic crash, and I thought, 'Wow, that is amazing. What the heck happened?'” Mason said. “This just doesn’t usually happen in this neighborhood. We live next to an airport and it could happen at any point, but it finally did.”
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