Two Howard County men were killed Tuesday night when their small plane crashed into a wooded area in Western Massachusetts.
The plane, a single-engine Cessna 172 registered to Jack Allen Johnson, crashed about 9:10 p.m. in a wooded area north of Orange Municipal Airport in Orange, Mass., according to Jim Peters, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration. The plane's passengers, Johnson, 61, of Ellicott City and Joseph Jaso, 52, of Marriotsville, died at the scene, according to Massachusetts State Police.
The cause of the crash is unknown. National Transportation Safety Board officials are investigating the accident.
Dennis Diaz, an investigator with the NTSB said that after interviewing witnesses Wednesday, "everything appeared normal" just before the crash, but a preliminary report won't be available for about 10 days.
He said investigators would begin moving pieces of the wreckage to a facility in Maine where they can be examined, as well as reviewing maintenance and pilot records and environmental factors for the preliminary report. A final report will take six to nine months and then the likely cause will be released, a spokeswoman said.
"We're not looking at any one thing," Diaz said, saying the cause could be a variety of factors.
A person who answered the phone at Johnson's home declined to comment Wednesday. Neighbors said Johnson was a handyman and "very friendly."
Carol Beall, who lives next door with her husband, Thomas, said Johnson had shoveled their driveway in the winter.
"He was a very industrious person," Beall said. "He was always doing something around the house. I have nothing but good things to say about him."
Johnson and Jaso had left from Fort Meade on Tuesday afternoon for a vacation in Maine. Diaz confirmed the plane was headed to Bar Harbor and that it had just refueled at Orange Municipal Airport in Massachusetts before the crash.
Johnson had been in contact with flight controllers from Nashua, N.H., and Hartford, Conn., before stopping to refuel in Orange.
Neither Johnson nor the aircraft had been involved in any prior accidents or incidents, officials said.
Baltimore Sun reporter Jessica Anderson contributed to this article.
rlhill@baltsun.com