Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

Journal photo / Bob Breidenbach
Investigators continue today to work the scene of a fatal plane crash that occurred last night near the North Central State Airport. Watch of a video of the scene and hear investigators talk about the crash.

By Thomas J. Morgan
Journal staff writer

More than 200 yards down a dirt driveway today lay the wreckage of a plane, white metal glowing in the afternoon sun that sliced through secondary growth trees in one of the more rural parts of Smithfield.

Blackened streaks from fire scarred the upside-down remains. Two bodies had been removed by the state medical examiner. Killed in the crash were Ronald Tetreault, 64, of Glocester, and Robert Zoglio Jr., 43, of Richmond, their wives said today.

They died after the small plane they were flying crashed into woods between Clark Road and Limerock Road about a half-mile from the North Central State Airport in Smithfield at about 5 p.m. yesterday.

The fire was "post-impact," said Shawn D. Etcher, an air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, during a news conference this afternoon in Smithfield.

Etcher said that a report that the plane lost power was merely "a rumor" at this point. But he said that the purported power loss would be looked into as part of the probe.

A clutch of felled trunks pointed toward the wreckage, indicating that the aircraft had been flying in a roughly northeast direction when it clipped the top of the trees.

James J. Warcup, an aeronautics inspector for the Rhode Island Airport Corporation, said today that at least some of the trees had been cut down before the crash. One broken trunk, still erect, was at least five inches in diameter. Whether it had been involved in the incident was not known.

An electrical cable strung from poles lining the driveway survived the crash. Warcup said the plane apparently cleared the cable before crashing perhaps 100 feet beyond.

The crash site sat within a sort of courtyard, a clearing in the woods half surrounded by an ornate stone wall. A large utility building or garage stood within the courtyard.

Warcup said the now-abandoned complex had been "a project in the '60s or '70s that didn't work out." Plans for a house evidently were never completed, he said.

Warcup and Etcher said it would take six months to a year for the NTSB to issue a report listing the cause of the accident. "We're not going to jump to any conclusions," Warcup said. He added that a preliminary check of the wreckage indicated that "all pieces are accounted for."

Etcher said the plane wreckage would be moved today to a hangar at nearby North Central State Airport, where it would be looked over for several days.

"If there's a part that's different from normal, we'll check it out," he said.

 Tags  plane crash Smithfield

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