Ex-Microsoft Exec, 2 children feared dead in plane crash

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Update: Bill Henningsgaard, a former Microsoft executive, and his son were aboard a turboprop airplane that crashed Friday morning into two houses in East Haven, Connecticut, a family member told CNN.

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A twin-engine turboprop airplane crashed into two houses in the southern Connecticut town of East Haven on Friday morning, leaving two dead and one missing, officials told reporters.

Feared dead were two children — ages 1 and 13 — in one house, as well as the pilot, East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. said. The other house was unoccupied.

Two bodies can be seen inside the home but haven’t been recovered because the home is unstable, East Haven Fire Chief Douglas Jackson said at a press conference Friday afternoon. Fire that consumed both houses prevented them from searching for victims, Jackson said, and the basement in the home holding at least two victims now filled with water. They are waiting for NTSB to arrive in a few hours to continue searching, he said.

Maturo said the children were in one house with their mother when the plane struck shortly before 11:30 a.m., Maturo said, adding that the mother escaped.

“It’s … total devastation in the back of the home,” Maturo said.

The multi-engine Rockwell International Turbo Commander 690B took off from New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport on Friday morning and crashed while approaching the Tweed New Haven Airport around 11:25 a.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said. The plane missed its initial approach, which isn’t uncommon, said Tweed’s airport manager Lori Hoffman-Soares.

The neighborhood is about a half mile from the airport. One resident said the accident wasn’t surprising.

“They fly in very low, and a lot of times you can hear the engine cut of before it gets to the runway,” she told CNN affiliate WTIC.

The mayor said the airport’s close proximity to residents isn’t unusual.

“It’s always a concern, but it’s something that happens in every airport,” Maturo said.

Neither the pilot’s identity nor information about how many people were in the plane was immediately available.

The fuselage entered one of the homes, Malloy said. Video from WTNH showed smoke rising from a heavily damaged house in East Haven, and what appeared to be the tail of a plane nearby.