BIDDEFORD — An investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board is in Biddeford now trying to gather clues about what caused a twin-engine Cessna to crash into a house Sunday.
Shortly after arriving, the investigator was carried over the house by a Biddeford Fire Department ladder truck, allowing him to take photographs of the scene.
The plane that crashed into a Biddeford home Sunday had its registration lapse last month, according to a Federal Aviation Administration database.
The Cessna 402B, a twin-engine general aviation airplane that seats up to 10 passengers, was supposed to be registered by March 31, but was not, according to the database. An FAA spokesman said the lapsed registration does not necessarily indicate anything is wrong with the plane. All general aviation aircraft were required to be re-registered last year, the spokesman said.
The database shows the plane was manufactured in 1977 and it is registered to a Nantucket corporation. There was no telephone listing for the corporation in Nantucket and the manager of the Nantucket Memorial Airport said the plane has not been based there for some time, since a previous owner died.
1:05 p.m.
The state Medical Examiner is scheduled to perform an autopsy and determine a cause of death for the pilot retrieved from the wreckage of a plane that crashed into a house in Biddeford Sunday.
Meanwhile, an investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board is scheduled to arrive at the scene of the crash at 3 p.m. today. One of the first orders of business will be to remove the plane’s wreckage from the house so it can be examined carefully, authorities said.
The twin-engine Cessna 402 crashed at 6 p.m. Sunday, according to a spokesman for the NTSB. It hit a tree then flipped over into a house, witnesses said. The pilot had been in contact with air traffic controllers during the flight but made no emergency distress call, the spokesman said.
Weather was good at the time of the crash, he said. There are witnesses who saw and heard the plane before the crash and investigators will be interviewing them as they try to determine the cause of the crash.
The flight apparently originated in Tampa Bay, Fla., and was planning to land at the Biddeford airport to pick up a passenger before leaving for another destination, authorities said.
Authorities have not released the name of the pilot.
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