A small aircraft crashed near Ithaca, New York, on Sunday afternoon, killing both people on board.
The crash happened in the town of Enfield, near North Applegate Road, shortly after the aircraft departed Ithaca Airport.
According to the Tompkins County Sheriff’s Office, the 1977 Lake LA-4-200 had been cleared for takeoff at 11:24 a.m. and made its last contact with the airport’s air traffic control tower at about 12:02 p.m.
A witness later reported seeing the aircraft go down around 12:35 p.m. The witness said the aircraft appeared to have experienced mechanical problems before the crash.
The two people aboard were identified as 52-year-old David Kornreich, the aircraft’s owner, and 31-year-old Andrew Harrell. Kornreich was pronounced dead at the scene, while Harrell was transported to Cayuga Medical Center but later died from his injuries.
Fortunately, no one on the ground was injured, and officials said no structures were damaged.
Tompkins County Sheriff Osborne described the incident as “a terrible and tragic situation,” while expressing condolences to the victims’ families and friends.
The FAA and NTSB are now investigating the crash. The reported mechanical problems are among the details investigators will examine, but the official cause has not yet been determined.
The investigation will need to establish what happened during the flight, whether the aircraft suffered a mechanical failure, and why the pilots were unable to recover before the aircraft went down.
A tragic end to a short flight — with investigators now working to determine exactly what went wrong.
