PLAINVILLE, Mass. — There was internal damage to the engine of a small plane that crashed into a home and burned over the weekend, killing three people onboard, a federal safety investigator said.
National Transportation Safety Board investigator Doug Brazy said Tuesday that investigators found a hole in the engine’s crankcase but don’t know the cause. He said the engine will be examined at a lab operated by its manufacturer.
The pilot had told air traffic control his engine was failing just before the crash in a Plainville neighborhood on Sunday evening.
Authorities have tentatively identified those killed as Dr. Joseph Richard Kalister; his wife, Betty Kalister; and their teenage daughter, Nicole Kalister. The daughter had been scheduled to attend a new-student orientation at Northeastern University in nearby Boston this week.
Dr. Joseph Kalister was the emergency room director at Starr Regional Medical Center’s Athens, Tenn,, campus