3 Dead in Long Island to Boston Plane Crash

EASTON, Mass. (AP) -- Three people are dead after a small plane carrying a patient from New York to Boston for medical treatment crashed in a grocery store parking lot.

Jim Peters, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said the three were on board the single engine Beechcraft Bonanza when it went down in the parking lot at a Hannaford grocery store at about 10:15 a.m. on Tuesday.

LISTEN: WBZ Reporter Mark Katic describes the scene

The plane was designated as an ``Angel Flight,'' which carry people who need to travel for medical treatment, but can't afford it.

Peters said the plane took off from Westhampton Beach on Long Island, N.Y., and was carrying the pilot and a couple from Long Island. He did not identify or give further details about any of the victims.

An Associated Press photographer on the scene said the plane crashed about 500 feet across from the store entrance, near a road leading out of the lot. A chaplain was on the scene of the wreck late morning Tuesday.

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.