Neighbor recounts Aurora plane crash aftermath

AURORA, N.Y. (WIVB) — Michael Lester was inside his home when he heard a loud noise. That’s when he looked out his back window to see billowing black smoke and dialed 911.

“It looked like it was coming from above my neighbor’s house,” Lester said. “So I had run across the street and I was kind of pounding on the door just kind of worried what was going on with them. And a car had pulled up — it was two older guys and they said they had just watched a plane go down.”

Investigators are working to figure out how a single-engine plane fell from the sky, killing its pilot. The aircraft came down around 11:30 a.m. Thursday in the Town of Aurora.

That single-engine plane crashed in between two homes. Lester said he had no choice but to wait for first responders because of the intense flames.

“It really wasn’t until I went around the shed and (saw) the tail of a plane that I had any idea,” Lester said.

East Aurora Police confirmed the only pilot of that single-engine plane died in the crash. Authorities told WIVB News 4 the pilot alerted the Buffalo Airport to a mechanical problem shortly before crashing.

On Saturday, the pilot was identified as Paul S. Marsh, who was reportedly traveling to visit family in White Plains, N.Y. from his hometown of Lansing, Mich.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents responded to the scene in a helicopter, and agents were on patrol when airport air traffic controllers asked them to respond to the scene. NTSB investigators are working to figure out what went wrong.

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Patrick Ryan is an award-winning reporter who has been part of the News 4 team since 2020. See more of his work here and follow him on Twitter.

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