NIAGARA COUNTY, N.Y. — The National Safety Transportation Board (NTSB) held a briefing Monday on a deadly plane crash in the Town of Porter that claimed the life of 35-year-old pilot Christopher Caruana of Grand Island.
New York State Police (NYSP) released details about the crash and said Caruana's single-seat Harmon Rocket airplane failed to gain proper altitude after taking off from Shear Airport in Niagara County. The plane hit some trees and power lines on Braley Road and crashed into a field.
NTSB air safety investigator Aaron McCarter told 2 On Your Side, "We're looking at three things: the human, the machine, and the environment."
McCarter was at the crash site retrieving evidence from the plane's wreckage. This is the third single-engine private plane crash in Western New York in the past month.
The first occurred on May 15, when an experimental plane crashed at the Akron airport. The pilot was injured but survived. Then, on June 6, two Canadian men were killed when their plane crashed just after takeoff from the Jamestown airport.
McCarter said that his team had not seen any unusual upticks in private aircraft crashes. The plane that crashed Sunday involved a Harmon Rocket which McCarter called a "speedster" because it was modified.
Harmon Rocket's website says, "Autos have been modified for decades by people seeking to make a vehicle meet their needs and desires, and the Harmon Rocket is no different."
McCarter said witnesses reported a part falling from the plane shortly after Caruana took off. McCarter said waiting for the wet and muddy conditions to dry will be the next stage of the investigation, allowing his team to take the wreckage to an NTSB facility in Massachusetts.
"We will do a three-dimensional layout on a hanger floor to better facilitate the investigation," McCarter said. He added that a full report usually takes the NTSB 12 months to complete.
'He was a well-seasoned pilot'
McCarter's investigation includes interviewing witnesses and looking into Caruana's background. "He was a well-seasoned pilot, had over 5,000 hours," McCarter said. "He was a commercial pilot, well known and respected by his friends at the airport."
Flight Aware provides a history of the plane. It had been flown 33 times since March 15 of this year. This was Caruana's first flight in the Harmon Rocket since Memorial Day.
2 On Your Side spoke Sunday with state trooper James O'Callaghan at the scene of the crash. He said that private plane accidents appear to increase between Memorial and Labor Day, attributing the spike to "nicer weather" and an increase in flights.
Nationwide the NTSB says there have been 37 incidents, involving private aircraft, since Memorial Day. Not all of them are fatal and the two most recent crashes in Western New York have not yet been included.
"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the friends and the family of the pilot," McCarter said.