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The single-engine Piper PA-28-140 took off from Allentown Queen City Municipal Airport at 1:40 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 28, and was in the air for one minute before going down in a residential yard on the 1400 block of Keystone Road in Salisbury Township, according to a preliminary report released by the NTSB on Friday, Oct. 7.
The aircraft traveled for less than a mile and then made a slight left turn before its data was lost, the report says. The crash site was about 450 feet from its last recorded location.
Keith Kozel, 49, of Easton, was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said.
A witness reportedly told investigators that he did not hear the airplane until it crashed into trees. It soon went up in flames.
"The witness was able to pull one of the occupants from the wreckage but was unable to extricate the other occupant before the fire engulfed the cabin section of the airplane," the report says.
The unidentified flight instructor was brought to Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest for treatment.
The cause remains under investigation by the NTSB.
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