Small plane crashes into building in Leominster, killing six on board

By Justin Pope, Associated Press, 4/4/03

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LEOMINSTER, Mass. -- A prominent New York City real estate developer, his wife and four other people were killed Friday after their plane slammed into a sheet metal shop and burst into flames.

The couple's 13-year-old daughter was the only survivor.

Anthony Fisher, 52, senior managing director of Fisher Brothers Inc., his wife, Anne, and their daughter, Tora, were on their way to Cushing Academy, a school Tora planned to attend this fall, when the Beechcraft King Air 200 nosedived and crashed into the D-E Corp. building.

All seven people who were working in the sheet metal plant managed to escape. One worker was treated at a local hospital for burns, but was later released.

Fisher, a well-known developer and philanthropist, graduated from Cushing in 1969 and his daughter had recently been offered fall admission at the private, college preparatory school in Ashburnham. The Fishers and their daughter were on their way to the school for a "revisit" day, when students who have been accepted attend classes and get to know the school.

"He was excited about her coming here," said M. Willard Lampe, the school's headmaster.

Fisher had been a member of the school's board of trustees for 30 years and was a major benefactor, Lampe said.

"He was a man who was extremely generous with his time and his talent, his energy and his contributions," Lampe said.

Witnesses said they saw a teenage girl walking, dazed, shortly after the plane slammed into the building. She was asking for her parents.

"She said, 'My back hurts' and was asking about her parents, her parents were on the plane," said Michael Poirier, the shop manager for D-E Corp.

Authorities said the other people who died were: Robert Monaco, 49, of Lexington, the pilot; Eric Jacobson, 30, of Peabody, the co-pilot; Michael Campanelli, 36, of Brooklyn, N.Y., and another man whose identity was not immediately released.

Tora Fisher was admitted to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester. A hospital spokesman would not release details of her condition, citing a request from the family.

The plane went down at about 9:30 a.m. on Nashua Street off Route 2 in this town about 35 miles northwest of Boston, witnesses said.

The plane left LaGuardia International Airport in New York and was scheduled to land at Hanscom Field in Bedford, according to a flight plan filed by the pilot.

But when the plane reached air space controlled by Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Conn., the pilot asked for permission to land at Fitchburg Municipal Airport instead, said Jim Peters, a spokesman for the New England office of the Federal Aviation Administration.

"There was no indication of any trouble at that point," Peters said.

When the plane reached air space controlled by Logan International Airport in Boston, controllers cleared the pilot to approach Fitchburg. Shortly thereafter, the plane disappeared from the radar, Peters said.

"The controller attempted to contact the pilot several times by radio, but to no avail," Peters said.

A few minutes later, the FAA received a call saying the plane had crashed into a one-story building.

David Brideau, who works at the sheet metal company, said he heard an explosion, then saw a huge fireball in the building.

Brideau said seven employees who were in the building at the time got out safely, but one worker suffered burns and was taken to the hospital. That man was treated and released from HealthAlliance Hospital in Leominster.

"Everything just happened really quick," he said. "I dropped to my knees, ran out."

Paul Schlamm, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington, D.C., said two investigators were sent to the crash site Friday.

FAA investigators from Windsor Locks, Conn., also went to the scene. Holly Baker, a spokeswoman for the FAA, said the plane was registered to F.S. Corsair Inc. in Concord.

Todd Davis, 42, of Leominster, who works at a company across the street, heard the plane flying low, then "I saw a huge ball of flame."

Davis described the plane as missing both wings and its nose collapsed from the weight of cinderblocks from the building it hit.

Pam Costa said she and her co-workers at Northwin Limited, an automotive chemical manufacturing company located near the crash site, heard a low whining sound coming from the plane.

"It just sounded low, and we all kind of made a joke and said, 'Geez, it sounds like it's going to land on the roof,"' Costa said.

"As I glanced up, I saw this ball of fire in front of me like a bomb came down," she said. "It shakes you to the bone. It just happened so fast." It happened really quick."