The plane accident that killed four people when a plane crashed into a Connecticut neighborhood, wasn’t the first accident for the pilot, former Microsoft executive Bill Henningsgaard.
Henningsgaard was on a college search trip with his son Maxwell when their plane crashed into the house killing two children inside.
On Saturday, East Haven police released the names of all the victims as Bill Henningsgaard, 54; his son Maxwell, 17; Sade Brantley, 13, and 1-year-old Madisyn Mitchell who lived in the house.
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigator Patrick Murray said the plane was upside down when it struck the house at about a 60 degree angle.
Murray added that the pilot was making his first approach and did not radio to say he had an emergency.
“We don’t have any indication there was anything wrong with the plane.”
It could take up to ten business day to get a preliminary report on the the cause of the Connecticut plane crash from the NTSB.
Henningsgaard had a close call in 2009, when he was flying a small plane with his mother as a passenger and the engine quit. At that time he managed to crash land on the Columbia River in Washington.
“I forced myself to confront that fact that the situation any pilot fears — a mid-air emergency, was happening right then, with my mother in the plane,” he wrote in a blog post after the incident.
The plane in the Connecticut accident hit two homes, with one wing lodged in one of them and the other in the second house.
The mother of the children came out screaming for help and several of the working class neighbors tried to assist her, but were forced to turn around because of the intensity of the flames.
Henningsgaard was a respected member of his community. He was a member of the Seattle foundation Social Venture Partners, which builds up communities.
He spent 14 years as a Microsoft executive in different capacities in the marketing and sales departments.
The Connecticut plane crash pilot leaves behind a wife and two daughters.
