Plane Crashes in Sheffield; Passengers, Pilot Escape Uninjured

By Tom Conklin
Berkshire News Network
10:51PM / Tuesday, September 15, 2009

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SHEFFIELD, Mass. — A Sheffield neighborhood was evacuated Tuesday afternoon after a single-engine plane went down in a field and caught fire.

Five people aboard a small New York-bound plane escaped serious injury after it crashed and caught fire. State police and the Federal Aviation Administration say the single-engine Cessna 208 went down at about 3 p.m. at the intersection of Route 41 and Kelsey Road.

Sheffield Emergency Management Director Ed McCormick was on site Tuesday, and Berkshire News Network correspondent Meg Bennett caught up with him at the scene. McCormick told Bennett that passengers were uninjured.

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The state police said the neighborhood was evacuated as a precaution because there were chemicals on board the aircraft.

The people on board were part of cleaning crew headed back to Saratoga Spring, N.Y. after completing a job in Long Island, N.Y., according to a report from WNYT Channel 13.

 The area was cordoned off while a determination was made as to if it was safe for the Fire Department to go in to extinguish the fire.

The FAA says the plane is registered to North American Flight Services, based in Ballston Spa, N.Y.

The last air incident in South County was in March, when a helicopter being used to run transmission lines for Western Massachusetts Electric Co. came down on Tyringham Road. No one was injured and the FAA is investigating the incident.

Hear full details of Tuesday's single engine plane crash in the morning on WBEC AM and FM, WSBS, WUPE and WNAW.