Crime & Safety

Victim Identified in Fatal Danbury Plane Crash

The single engine airplane damaged an airport beacon on its approach, and the victim was identified as a 64-year-old businessman from Kansas.

A Kansas man, 64, Peter Woodsmall, died after a single-engine aircraft he was piloting crashed about a half-mile short of Danbury Airport, grazing the home of a 91-year-old woman who was inside balancing her checkbook Sunday night, officials said.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating Sunday night's crash, and it will hold a press conference at 3 p.m. Monday at Danbury City Hall.

Danbury Fire Chief Geoff Herald said his department's only contribution to this accident from now on is likely to be lending the city a ladder truck to repair the damaged beacon.

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Airport Administrator Paul Estefan said he won't know the extent of the damage until the NTSB releases the site to the city. The NTSB is the federal agency with legal authority to investigate plane crashes.

The crash took place while the airplane was making an instrument approach to runway 26. It crashed next to the house at 58 Wooster Heights Road. The resident, 91, was uninjured and helped direct emergency responders to the downed plane, which knocked the gutters off the house but apparently did not break any windows, Mayor Mark Boughton said.

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The crash was reported to officials at 8:15 p.m.

Officials did not release the identity of the man or woman on Sunday night, and said they were unsure from where his plane originated.

"We don't know where it departed from at this time," Danbury Fire Capt. Bernie Meehan said.

The plane, a Cirrus SR-22, was coming from the direction of New York and Danbury Airport air traffic controllers were in the process of directing the pilot to Runway 26 on the east side of the airport at the time, officials said.

The plane had been cleared to land, though officials said they don't know what happened or was said in the minutes prior to the crash.

"I don't know at this point – we haven't heard the tapes," said Paul Estefan, the airport manager.

The pilot died instantly and was found in the wreckage, officials said.

"There was no fire, no fuel," Meehan said of the crash site.


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