Angel Flight Down

A patient being flown to Boston's Dana Farber was aboard. The flight
originated on Long Island NY's South Fork.

This seems like an extreme case of no good deed going unpunished.
There is so much not said in the news report I've pasted below, but it
is clearly a case where a care giving pilot died, along with two
passengers, on a mercy flight.


The news report follows.

EASTON, Mass. - A small plane carrying a cancer patient to Boston for
medical treatment crashed Tuesday in a grocery store parking lot,
killing all three people on board, authorities said.
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The single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza went down in the parking lot at a
Hannaford grocery store, said Jim Peters, a spokesman for the Federal
Aviation Administration.

Names of the victims were not immediately released.

The flight was arranged by Angel Flight Northeast, a group of
volunteer pilots that helps people who need to travel for medical
treatment, but can't afford it.

Amy Camerlin, a spokeswoman for the organization, said a cancer
patient and his wife were being flown to Boston's Logan International
Airport so the man could be treated at the Dana-Farber Cancer
Institute.

"Right now our primary concern is the family," she said. "Our thoughts
and prayers go out to the family."

The plane took off from Westhampton Beach on New York's Long Island
and was carrying the pilot and a couple from Long Island, Peters said.

The plane crashed about 500 feet across from the store entrance, near
a road leading out of the lot. Firefighters surrounded the wreckage
Tuesday afternoon, and a charred wing stuck out from the rest of the
debris, which was covered in white cloth.

Store manager Arthur Dechellis the plane crashed in an area where
people rarely park and no cars were hit.

"I didn't see it, I just heard an explosion," he said. "When I looked
outside, it was on fire." Dechellis said the store remained open.

The registered owner of the plane is Janet Keene of Brookfield, Conn.,
but she was not on board, according to her husband, Kenneth Keene. He
said the plane, which his wife had inherited, was used by Angel Flight
about once a month and he knew of no problems with it.

Easton is about 25 miles south of Boston.