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DARTMOUTH — Federal investigators convened on I-195 Tuesday to gather evidence from the site of the fatal plane crash that killed its two passengers, a married couple, on Monday morning.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) routinely investigates major aviation, marine, railroad and highway accidents. Officials visit the site, review evidence, determine a probable cause, and often within 30 days publish a preliminary report containing the facts of the crash.
The victims, Thomas Perkins, 68, and Agatha Perkins, 66, are from Middletown, Rhode Island. Thomas Perkins flew for the nonprofit Air Charity Network, which is composed of regional networks that work with volunteer pilots to provide free transportation or fly out resources to those in medical or humanitarian need.
Rev. Larry Camerlin, president and founder of Angel Flight Northeast, said that the Perkinses were not flying for the charity that day, but were on a personal flight to Wisconsin from New Bedford.
He said Thomas Perkins joined the organization in 2021 and flew “numerous missions that brought patients and families to vital medical care throughout the Eastern United States.”
“Tom was more than a pilot; he was a friend, a mentor, and a shining example of what it means to serve others with courage, kindness, and heart,” Camerlin said in an emailed statement. “We mourn their loss deeply and celebrate the lives they lived — lives filled with generosity, adventure, and faith.”
The crash happened during the season’s first nor’easter, which saw winds reaching 18 miles per hour just before 8 a.m. (the flight took off at 8:08 a.m.), with gusts up to 35 miles per hour, according to federal weather data.
Jeff Guzzetti, a former NTSB and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) accident investigator, said he would not have flown in such conditions.
“The TBM 700 is a very sophisticated and advanced and expensive airplane… It’s kind of a sports car of single-engine airplanes,” he said of the Perkinses’ plane. “It takes a certain level of training to fly it. If you’re challenged with a potential mechanical malfunction and bad gusty weather, that can be a combination for disaster.”
Still, Guzzetti cautioned against assuming the adverse weather was the leading, or only, factor in the crash.
“This airplane wasn’t airborne for very long and the weather was bad, but I would caution anyone from just assuming it was because of the weather,” he said. “It could have coincidentally been some mechanical malfunction or pilot medical issue or any other number of items. We just have to wait for investigators to verify the facts.”
The NTSB and FAA did not respond to questions or a request for comment as of early afternoon Tuesday.
The director for the New Bedford Regional Airport, which the Perkinses flew out of, said on Monday that the decision to depart is made by the carrier or the pilot, in the case of a private aircraft.
Scot Servis said the airport’s authority to prevent a departure is “limited to instances in which the runways are deemed unsafe for takeoffs or landings.” Servis said the runways on Monday morning were clear, and that the control tower was staffed at normal levels.
Guzzetti affirmed this, stating the airport has no regulatory authority to prevent a plane from taking off into bad weather if the runways are clear: “That is the pilot’s responsibility.”
What happens now?
Guzzetti, who led the investigation into the 1999 fatal plane crash involving John F. Kennedy Jr. in Martha’s Vineyard, said officials will secure “perishable evidence” and document the wreckage in situ. This involves taking photos and measurements of any ground scars in the grass or roadway left by the skidding aircraft.
Also in the median Tuesday for NTSB investigators to assess was a sedan that was struck by the plane. The driver, an unnamed woman, was transported to St. Luke’s Hospital Monday for non-life-threatening injuries, according to local authorities.
They will also request information from the FAA, such as the flight plan submitted by Perkins; voice communications between Perkins and the air traffic controller before, during and after takeoff; and ground radar information, which is operated and maintained by the federal agency.
They’ll likely ask Massachusetts State Police to share witness statements troopers gathered, given they were the first to respond.
Eventually, the plane will be moved from the highway to a secure facility, where investigators can more closely examine the aircraft and its instruments, some of which store data that can be uploaded and reviewed.
Video from NBC10 showed officials removing the plane from the highway median around 2 p.m. Tuesday.
Guzzetti said this model of aircraft is not equipped with “crash-worthy” flight recorders, or black boxes as they’re more commonly called. But, it still has computerized instruments that are “pretty hardy” and contain information that can provide a second-by-second picture of what happened from takeoff to impact.
The preliminary report, which is usually issued within 30 days of a crash, could be as short as a few paragraphs to a few pages, and will stick to the facts of the case, he said. For example, investigators wouldn’t write the weather was “bad” or “poor,” but they will note the visibility, wind speed and precipitation.
The final report, which would include the probable cause of the crash, can take a year or more to complete.
MSP officers remained on scene overnight to secure the scene for the federal officials, per Tim McGuirk, MSP spokesperson. The highway reopened Tuesday, with the exception of the leftmost lanes to accommodate safe inspection by investigators, who donned outerwear with “NTSB” and “Aircraft Recovery” on the back.
Email Anastasia E. Lennon at alennon@newbedfordlight.org.
Nice reporting job Anastasia
unfortunately there is no coverage by liveatc of the new bedford airport, so no publicly available recordings of the communications between the pilot and tower. it’s clear though that the pilot never switched from tower to providence departure for communciation, which would be the norm. so whatever happened, happened fast. it’s clear from flightradar24 that the plane took off normally and had an initial rate of climb that was normal (2000fpm), but ground speed was slow (63kts), so maybe was hitting a gusting 30kts head wind, and was in the initial turn that the plane stopped climbing and then descended straight into the ground.
Based on this, I would say either there was significant wind shear on take off and the wind shifted from 30kts head wind to something much less, maybe caused a stall and the pilot never recovered the plane (visibility was very poor and maybe with a stall and needing to fly by instrument, pilot was overwhelmed), which happens when you are low to the ground and bad things happen. Or the pilot had a medical event and that was the end. The plane is older (22 years old) so likely no “land safe” option for the wife to activate if the pilot became incapacitated.
No matter what, sad. As a GA pilot I focus intensely on these accidents to learn.