Plane crash kills 2 men on board as it hits house
Share with others:
Investigators must reconstruct the charred wreckage of a twin-engine plane to learn why it crashed into a rural Westmoreland County home Saturday morning, killing a pilot and flight instructor who had taken off minutes earlier.
Westmoreland County Deputy Coroner Gerald Fritz said the victims have been tentatively identified as Edward Francis Sobota, 65, of Unity, and Theodore P. Kokolis, 66, of Moon. Their identities are expected to be confirmed after autopsies today, Mr. Fritz said.
Mr. Sobota was the president and owner of TSI Titanium in Derry. Mr. Kokolis had been a pilot for Bayer Corp., although company spokesman Bryan Iams said he was not sure if Mr. Kokolis still worked for the company. Authorities have not determined which man -- both experienced pilots -- was flying the Beech Baron BE-58 prop aircraft when it abruptly spiraled into the house at 9:20 a.m.
The men were making a "familiarization trip" in the recently purchased plane, Westmoreland County Public Safety spokesman Dan Stevens said. The instructor, believed to be Mr. Kokolis, was on board to ensure the pilot was able to fly the aircraft, which took off at 9:08 a.m. from the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport near Latrobe.
Minutes after the plane lifted off the runway, a witness on the ground telephoned 911 at 9:20 a.m. to report that it had crashed into a house at 2252 Route 286 in Bell, near the county's boundary with Indiana County. The fuel-laden plane burst into flames and ignited the house, which collapsed atop the wreckage as it burned. The house is surrounded by hundreds of wooded acres, yet none of the 40-foot-tall trees in the surrounding grove was damaged, suggesting the plane plunged straight down.
Homeowner Stephen Yanko, 60, was asleep in the basement, but awakened at what sounded like an explosion. He escaped unharmed along with his dog, a Norwegian elkhound-chow mix named Asia, and called his wife, Rose, who had been shopping with her daughter at a flea market.
First Published August 8, 2010 12:22 am
