Cargo Plane Crash Kills Sleeping Couple

WARREN, Mich. —  A cargo plane nose-dived into a residential neighborhood just after taking off early Thursday and exploded into flames, setting two houses afire and killing the pilot and a sleeping couple, authorities said.

Neighbors helped rescue the victims’ three daughters--who ranged in age from 4 to 9--and the occupant of the second house.

Thomas Bussard of Pontiac was the pilot of the twin-engined Beechcraft 18, which had just taken off on a flight from Detroit City Airport (not the city’s main airport) to Ft. Wayne, Ind. It was carrying a shipment of truck suspension parts for a General Motors Corp. plant.

The plane hit a garage belonging to Iris Eady and a van before it crashed into the bedroom of Norma and Harold Richardson, both 29, and exploded.

“The plane looked like it dropped from the sky right on top of Iris’ garage,” neighbor Don Hunt said. “The power lines are still up, so the plane didn’t glide in. After hitting the garage, the plane hit Iris’ new minivan and pushed the van into the (Richardson) house.”

Rescue by Neighbors

Immediately after the crash, neighbors ran to help.

“No one answered, so I kicked the door in,” with Hunt’s help, said Carl French. “We found three girls in the hallway. They started screaming. I grabbed the girls and led them out.”

The fire prevented French and other rescuers from reaching the girls’ parents.

“You could feel the intense heat,” neighbor Jeff Detkowski said.

Hunt said he first thought about Eady. “I just kept banging on the door until Iris finally came to the door,” he said. “I said ‘You have to get out.’ ”

GM spokeswoman Kari Hulsey said parts such as those on the plane are not shipped by air normally, but air delivery was decided upon because of a parts shortage at the Ft. Wayne plant.

Plan to Expand Airport

The crash occurred about five miles northwest of City Airport, where officials have been working on an expansion plan to make it big enough to handle commercial jets.

Warren Mayor Ronald Bonkowski and City Councilman James Fouts have opposed the plan.

“Here we have a man and wife who went to bed and no longer exist,” Fouts said Thursday. “And we have three children who are now orphans.”

Officials from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were investigating the cause of the crash.

Martha Vercammen, an FAA spokeswoman in Des Plaines, Ill., said the plane “did not gain enough altitude. The controller observed a flash, and apparently the aircraft went down at that point.”