GROTON, Conn. — The site of a twin-engine plane lodged in the roof of a Groton home house, nearly a day after the crash, has drawn a steady stream of cars to the neighborhood all day Tuesday.
The plane, based at Groton New London Airport, was traveling from Augusta, ME Monday when it ran into trouble just northeast of the airport in Groton. It crashed into a home on Ring Drive. Miraculously, nobody, either onboard the plane or inside the home, was seriously injured.
The airplane, a Piper Seneca, which is still wedged inside the house, with its nose in the living room, will likely be taken away by a contractor for the insurer of the plane sometime tonight or Wednesday. But the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)) says they likely won't have preliminary details of the crash for a couple of weeks.
"We have people from as far away is Mystic that heard the plane sputtering and we also had officers, who were in our back-parking lot, that heard it sputtering also," said Det. Sgt. Heather Beauchamp of the Groton Town Police Department.
"My gut just said my dad, I better call my dad to make sure he’s OK," said Tammy de la Cruz, after her husband received a text about the plane crash in their neighborhood.
2 injured after plane crashes into Groton house
But, Ken Johnson, who lives around the corner from his daughter, never answered her phone calls.
"And I kind of lost it and thought, I just had a feeling it was his house," de la Cruz said.
And it was her father's home. The twin engine, with two passengers aboard, slammed into Johnson's house just after 10:30 Monday night.
"I saw the house and I just, I was like, I just fell to my knees because I couldn’t believe it," de la Cruz said. "This was my childhood house and I thought my dad was gone."
But police encountered a miracle.
"They found the homeowner had already extricated himself from the home.," said Beauchamp. "Also, the two passengers of the airplane were already out of the airplane."
In fact, the plane's occupants were said to have walked out of the front door of the home, while the 73-year-old Johnson retired to his back bedroom just prior to the crash.
"That was the only safe room in the house was his bedroom," de la Cruz said.
There was no fire and no environmental concerns, due to spilled fuel. However, the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) was among the responders to the crash scene.
Despite mild throat discomfort, because of the fumes, Mr. Johnson was fortunate.
"So, he really unbelievably had an angel on his shoulder," de la Cruz said.
The angel, she says, was her son, Joey Gingerella, who was murdered nearly four years ago, just down the street from this crash scene, in the parking lot of Ryan's Pub as he came to the aid of a woman allegedly just assaulted by her boyfriend.
"If he (her father) had stayed on that couch, we would be having a totally different conversation right now," said de la Cruz.
Many say they are amazed the plane missed trees, utility poles and power lines on its descent. The NTSB says the investigation could take up to two years.