Boston Area Hit by Plane Plans to Rebuild

People in borrowed clothes wandered Lonsdale Street on Friday, vowing to rebuild the close-knit neighborhood shaken from its sleep by a fiery airplane crash that killed the pilot and injured three residents.

John White, chief of operations for the city fire department, called it miraculous that about 15 other people who fled their homes escaped injury.

3 Houses Destroyed

Three houses in the Dorchester section of the city were destroyed, along with six cars and a van, and four homes were damaged in the fire ignited by the plane crash and explosion at about 1:30 a.m.

“I ran down the street. It was blazing all over the place. . . . I just seen things flying. There were pieces all over the place,” said Glenn Austin, 25, who saw the crash. “This one (house) just burst into flames. It just exploded. I started seeing cars explode.”

Within seconds of the explosion, people poured out of their houses and tried to help their neighbors.

“It was just flame everywhere,” said Thomas Byrnes, 28, who said he had been awakened by neighbors yelling at him to get out of his house. “It was instant flame, all flame.”

Neighbors Open Homes

Byrnes said the trauma of losing his home was tempered by the generosity of his neighbors, who opened their homes to him and 10 other displaced residents.

As the buildings smoldered, St. Mark’s, a nearby Roman Catholic church, was laying plans to establish a fund for the victims to rebuild their homes.

George Knauber, whose home was destroyed, said he will do all he can to stay on Lonsdale Street. “I’ve lived here 28 years. We’re gonna rebuild, I hope. It’s a great neighborhood.”

Federal Aviation Administration officials said the twin-engine Piper Seneca with only the pilot on board was carrying bank documents and other financial papers from Teterboro, N. J., to Logan International Airport. They said there was no indication of trouble as it approached Logan.

The pilot was not identified. The plane was owned by Cash Air Inc. of Lawrence, police spokeswoman Nancy Gleason said.

Instrument Approach

FAA spokesman Michael Ciccarelli said the pilot was making an instrument approach to Logan. About 15 seconds after checking in with the airport tower at the five-mile mark over Milton, the pilot banked to the left and off the instrument approach, he said.

Ciccarelli said there was no indication from the pilot that anything was wrong. He said the pilot’s last words were: “I am over the outer marker.”