Pittsfield plane crash kills pilot

PITTSFIELD -- The pilot of a twin-engine cargo plane died yesterday morning when the aircraft crashed into a field in a densely populated section of the city.

Pilot Brian Templeton of Waterford, Mich., was the only person on board; there were no injuries on the ground, said police Captain John O'Neil. He said Templeton was in his mid-30s.

"It's amazing to me that the plane landed where it did," said Detective Mark Bushey. "There are buildings everywhere here. I'd like to think the pilot had had something to do with putting it down away from all these buildings and roadways."

The MU-2 Mitsubishi turboprop, owned by Royal Air of Waterford was carrying a load of screws from Hagerstown, Md., to Bangor.

It was at 17,000 feet when air traffic controllers in Nashua lost radar and radio contact with the plane about 5:40 a.m., said Jim Peters, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

"Shortly after that, our regional communications center got a call from Pittsfield police about the crash," Peters said, adding that controllers "had no indication prior to losing communications of any problems with the aircraft."

According to witnesses, the plane appeared to head toward Pittsfield Municipal Airport when it went down near a General Electric Plant, less than 2 miles from the airport.

Witnesses told WUPE-AM that they heard the engines revving, then the plane went down belly first after spinning several times.

It came to rest, bursting into flames, about 100 feet from a school bus garage in a field bordered by a shopping center, a residential area, a busy highway, and the GE plant.