Plane Crash in Boston Suburb Starts Inferno

BOSTON — A light twin-engine cargo plane took a wrong turn, hit a house and exploded in a fireball early today, killing the pilot and touching off an inferno that burned three homes and seriously injured three people.

The Piper Seneca hit the top of at least one three-story home in the city’s Dorchester section at 1:12 a.m. before it crashed in the middle of Lonsdale Street, said Fire Capt. Matthew Corbett.

The fireball from the crash created a nine-alarm blaze that sent residents fleeing in their bedclothes and took three hours to extinguish.

“It was just unreal,” said Julie Corbett, 39, who lives across the street from the house that was hit by the plane. “It was an inferno. It happened in seconds. I heard screaming. I looked out (my window) and there was a car turned over, and then I saw a ball of flames.”

Unexplained Left Turn

The pilot apparently took a “mysterious left turn” off course about four miles from Logan International Airport, said Mike Ciccarelli, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Adminstration.

“The Logan tower then lost all radar and radio contact with the aircraft,” he said. “There was no indication from the pilot that there was anything wrong.”

Authorities said it was a miracle that the injury toll was so low.

Mayor Raymond L. Flynn, who helped evacuate homes just minutes after the crash, said, “The whole street was like an inferno.”

The plane struck a “triple-decker” house and gasoline from the aircraft splashed onto two other homes, fueling a nine-alarm blaze that gutted all three buildings and destroyed several cars, Fire Capt. Corbett said.

Damage was estimated at $2 million.

The flight of the freight plane, owned by Cash Air of Lawrence, Mass., had originated in Teterboro, N.J. It was carrying bundles of Investor’s Daily, a financial newspaper headquartered in Los Angeles, and some bank checks.