A witness to the airplane crash in East Windsor on April 18 that killed 61-year-old Robert Plourde, of Ellington, and 51-year-old George Janssen II, of Vernon, said the plane was flying low and shaking before the crash, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board.
The two men killed in the crash were in Plourde's 1946 single-engine Luscombe 8A when it crashed on Rolocut Road, by Wells Road, about half an hour after taking off.
A witness who was standing at the departure end of the runway told investigators that the plane seemed to be lower and slower than most planes as it passed overhead, the report says.
Then he saw the plane shaking and tipping left and right before making a "drastic, sharp, and abrupt" turn north. Then, the witness said, he no longer heard the engine and the plane "dropped like a stone."
Plourde and Janssen were pronounced dead at the scene, according to officials.
The NTSB report says said Janssen, who had a private pilot certificate, had been sitting in the left seat, and Plourde, who also had a private pilot certificate, was in the right cockpit seat.
