One Of Victims Killed In Bucks County Small Plane Crash Identified
HILLTOWN TOWNSHIP, Pa. (CBS) -- We now know the name of one of the victims who was killed in a small plane crash Thursday in a residential Bucks County neighborhood. Federal investigators now are trying to figure out what happened.
The victim has been identified as Brian Filippini, of Philadelphia.
The plane went down in the middle of a neighborhood not far from Central Middle School in Hilltown Township, near Perkasie.
You can see how close this plane was to hitting a home in security video that captured it all.
In the video, you can hear a small plane appearing to sputter before we see a ball of fire in the sky.
CBS3 saw the wreckage of the single-engine Beechcraft up close Friday in Hilltown Township.
Authorities say two people inside the plane died. Neighbors say it's lucky no one else was hurt.
"The pillar flew into our upstairs bedroom so it was just laying on the floor in our upstairs bedroom," Monica Rush said.
You can see a boarded-up hole in Rush's home where one of the plane's propeller blades flew into. Plane fragments struck two other homes in the neighborhood as well.
"We got extremely lucky that we didn't have more damage than we did and nobody got hurt," Rush said.
The NTSB is investigating what led to the crash but it's clear to Arthur Wolk, an aviation law expert.
"There was a loss of power or engine failure," he said.
Wolk says the propeller's shape after the crash reveals why.
"If you look at the propeller, it's almost straight, it's almost pristine. And if there was power on the engine at the time the aircraft crashed, that propeller would be curled like a pretzel," Wolk said.
The FAA says the plane left the Doylestown Airport and was headed to the Gunden Airport in Perkasie, less than four miles from here before it began to sputter.
"That's not unusual. It's described by many witnesses when there's an engine failure. You hear a popping noise," Wolk said.
A sign on the victim's front door says he was a loving father, husband and friend. The NTSB says it will finish a preliminary report in the next two weeks.
