Windsor man dead after small plane crashes in Vermont
An 89-year-old western Massachusetts pilot who had been a lifelong flying enthusiast was found dead in the wreckage of his small plane in Vermont yesterday, according to authorities.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash that killed Norman L. Baker of Windsor, who had been flying since he was 13.
Baker’s body was found amid the wreckage of a 51-yearold Cessna 172 shortly before 11:30 a.m. yesterday in a heavily wooded area in Pittsford, Vt., said Vermont State Police Capt. Michael Manley.
Baker, the only person on board, was instrument rated, Manley said, and although the single-engine plane was built in 1966, police had no information that it hadn’t been running well.
“We don’t know why he went down, at this point,” he said. “He was running out of daylight when the plane went down.”
Baker left Pittsfield Municipal Airport in Massachusetts about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday and was flying on visual flight rules, meaning he was not receiving air traffic control service, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
When he didn’t land about two hours later at Middlebury State Airport in Vermont as expected, a concerned relative or friend contacted authorities. The FAA issued an alert notice Wednesday night, notifying local authorities, airports and search-and-rescue organizations that an aircraft was missing.
Police received reports that a plane had been flying low in the vicinity of Sugar Hollow Road in Pittsford, about 25 miles south of Middlebury, and that the aircraft had sounded like it was having engine trouble, Manley said. And then, about 5 p.m., a caller reported a loud noise.
After first responders spent the night searching the area by land and by air, he said, a landowner went out looking in the woods on his property yesterday morning and came upon the heavily damaged Cessna and its pilot.
It was unclear yesterday when the plane last had been inspected.
Baker’s family could not be reached for comment.