FAA: Plane To Maine Crashes In Mass., Killing 2

A small plane on its way to Maine has crashed near an airport in western Massachusetts, killing both people aboard, an aviation official says.

The plane, a single-engine Cessna 172, crashed Tuesday night in Orange, a town of about 7,500 residents, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters said. It had left Orange Municipal Airport, and it went down about 9:10 p.m. in a wooded area about a mile to the north.

The plane was registered to a man in Ellicott City, Md., but there was no home telephone number listed for him.

The identities of the two people killed in the crash and their destination in Maine hadn't been determined, Peters said. The FAA was trying to locate the flight plan the pilot filed, he said.

The Wichita, Kan.-based Cessna Aircraft Co. says the 172 has a reputation for reliability and predictable flight characteristics and is the world's most popular training aircraft.

The National Transportation Safety Board will lead the investigation into the crash, whose cause hadn't been determined.