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The plane that crashed and skidded onto a median on I-195 in Dartmouth last month, killing its two passengers, was trying to make its way back to the New Bedford Regional Airport, according to a preliminary report released Sunday by federal investigators.

The single-engine plane was carrying two people, married couple Thomas and Agatha Perkins, of Middletown, Rhode Island, who had departed the New Bedford airport only minutes earlier. In addition to the two fatalities, one driver of a motor vehicle sustained minor injuries from the crash.

The crash happened during the season’s first nor’easter. Federal weather data showed wind speeds reached 18 mph that morning with gusts up to 35 mph. Other flights out of the New Bedford airport had been canceled.  

The three-page preliminary report, issued by the National Transportation Safety Board, provides no opinions on the weather, but includes the final communications between pilot Thomas Perkins and an air traffic controller at the New Bedford airport. It notes the controller stopped receiving communication from Perkins before the planned landing. 

“It’s still a mystery,” said Jeff Guzzetti, a former NTSB and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) accident investigator, of the primary cause of the crash. 

“There does not appear to be any hardware problem. … It appears the engine was producing power and that there was nothing that jumped out at investigators that would indicate a mechanical malfunction.” Still, he cautioned the investigation is ongoing and could reveal new information as data is processed and reviewed. 

The report states that “shortly after departure, the pilot stated that he would be returning to the airport. The air traffic controller then instructed the pilot to enter a left downwind for runway 05, an instruction which the pilot confirmed.”

“The controller then queried the pilot if he would need assistance upon landing, to which the pilot reported that he did not need assistance. The controller then cleared the pilot to land.”

“The controller next asked the pilot whether he could perform an approach… or if he would need radar vectors” and noted a low “ceiling” (the altitude at which clouds are present), the report continues.  

Guzzetti said this communication essentially captures the controller offering the pilot a heading to fly toward using the plane’s instruments instead of visual reference given the low cloud ceiling, which can preclude one’s ability to fly by sight. 

“The pilot responded that he would descend and that he ‘should be OK,’” it continues. “The controller acknowledged the pilot and cleared him again to land.… About one minute later, the controller provided the pilot with a low altitude alert and the altimeter setting that was current at the time. The pilot confirmed the altimeter setting. Shortly after, the pilot made an unintelligible exclamation. There were no further communications from the pilot.”

Guzzetti said a low altitude alert means an aircraft is too low to be safe from ground obstacles, be it mountains, hills or trees. The report does not state the plane’s altitude at the time this alert was given. 

The plane crashed just four miles from the airport. It first struck the wooded edge of I-195 in Dartmouth. Its fuselage skidded nearly 300 feet across three lanes of highway. The report notes that the plane cut the tops off trees about 50 feet above the ground. 

The NTSB report did not discuss weather in the narrative, but lists meteorological information in a table at the end. For wind, it was 19 knots (about 21 mph) with gusts of 28 knots (32 mph). Visibility was 2.5 miles. 

“You have a cloud ceiling lower than 1,000 feet and you have visibility less than 3 miles, and some significant wind gusts. Those are adverse weather conditions,” Guzzetti said, adding the controller seemed to recognize that in their reported communications.

The airport’s director previously said decisions to depart or land are made by the carrier, and that the airport can only cancel or prevent arrivals or departures when the runway is deemed unsafe. 

Investigators stated there were no signs of fuel leaks. 

The plane was initially headed for Kenosha, Wisconsin. 

The final report on the crash, which will identify the probable causes of the accident and factors that contributed to it, could take a year or more to complete. 

Thomas and Agatha Perkins, 68 and 66 years old, were laid to rest in Rhode Island last month. They were remembered as active and generous members of their community. Thomas Perkins also flew for the nonprofit Air Charity Network, which provides free transportation or flies out resources to those in medical or humanitarian need. 

Email Anastasia E. Lennon at alennon@newbedfordlight.org.