GROTON, Conn. — Piece by piece, a Piper Seneca twin-engine, that crashed into a home on Ring Drive in Groton late Monday night, was strapped to flatbed trucks for transport to an undisclosed location in Delaware, where the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will begin to investigate the wreckage.
Generally, the preliminary report is issued within two weeks, which does not have the cause of the accident," said Eric Weiss, an NTSB Spokesperson. "It just describes what was found factually on scene."
The complete investigation may take one to two years, he said. The probable cause will be known at the end of that investigation.
"We focus on three major areas. We look at the man or the human, the machine, in this case the airplane, and the environment, the operating environment, the weather at the time, training, the pilot," Weiss said.
While extremely thankful that neither the planes occupants nor her father was seriously hurt, even watching the extraction of the plane today was excruciating for Tammy De La Cruz
"I could see the curtains start to move and I got very emotional because, like I said yesterday, it was my childhood house," said Tammy de la Cruz. "My mom lost her life in 2012 and she died right in front of that window."
She said many in the neighborhood also cried because the house will now have to be demolished.
"Yes, we are very thankful everyone is alive, but we are sad for the memories that we lost inside that house," de la Cruz said.
So, her mom passed in 2012. Her son, Joey Gingerella, was murdered in 2016. And now, after another four-year gap, more trying times.
"I think if anyone was watching over my father it was probably my mom and my son," she said with a smile. "They were making sure he’s got some time. They knew I couldn’t handle any more any more loss right now."
Neither the pilot nor the passenger of the plane, owned by Groton/New London Airport based Upgrade, Inc., have been identified. The company is also affiliated with Action Airlines, whose website states three Piper Seneca are part of their fleet of charter planes.
From the NTSB’s most recent statistics, in 2017, there were 1,233 general aviation accidents that year, resulting in 331 fatalities. Fortunately, on Ring Drive, in Groton, there were no fatalaities.