The two men who died when their small plane crashed into a residential building in Keene, New Hampshire, on Friday have been identified.
The Keene Police Department identified them Monday as Lawrence Marchiony, a 41-year-old from Baldwinville, Massachusetts, and Marvin David Dezendorf, a 60-year-old from Townshend, Vermont.
Police said Monday that the National Transportation Safety Board, which is heading up the investigation into Friday's crash, would release more information.
The NTSB had said in a news conference Sunday that both occupants of the plane were pilot-rated. Tim Monville, a senior air safety investigator, said the plane had taken off a short time before the crash, and one of the people on board had told the airport they were planning to remain in the traffic pattern over the airport, The Boston Globe reported.
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There were no signs of any issues before the crash, Monville said.
He said the cabin, cockpit and both wings were consumed by the flames that broke out after the crash.
The identities of the victims have not been released, but investigators said their families have been notified.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the single-engine Beechcraft Sierra aircraft crashed into a building north of Keene Dillant-Hopkins Airport in Keene just before 7 p.m. on Friday. City officials said on their Facebook page that no one was injured in the building hit by the plane but “those on the plane have perished.”
Keene Mayor George Hansel said the plane hit a two-story barn connected to a multi-family apartment building. All eight people were evacuated from the apartment building due to the subsequent fire.
The building sustained significant damage to an estimated 20% to the rear of the structure, and it will remain empty until it can be further assessed.
Hansel said the plane was owned by Monadnock Aviation, which is based at the airport. He said it was unclear where the plane was headed and no one answered the phone at Monadnock.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation and the operations at the airport were not affected, he said.
“We are very fortunate in some ways that the plane didn’t hit a part of the building where people were,” Hansel said. “This obviously could have been much worse, but any loss of life is a tragedy.”
Michael McCosker, a local pastor, is organizing relief efforts for the families who lost everything when the plane ripped through the apartment building. He told NBC10 Boston that his church, Hope Chapel, is next door to the now wrecked multi-family complex and two young church leaders were residents of the building.
He has set up a GoFundMe page for the residents after communicating with the landlord and learning that the families did not have renter's insurance.
"We got things we've got to do, people we need to help and we want to make Keene better," McCosker said.
The church's goal is to raise $15,000.
