Connecticut plane crash: 4 bodies pulled from debris

HARTFORD, Connecticut, the plane crash that killed four people in a district of Connecticut was not the first accident for the pilot, a former Microsoft Executive who was taking her teenage son on a tour of universities in the coast this.

The pilot, Bill Henningsgaard, was killed along with his son, Maxwell, and two children who were in a House hit by the small airplane propeller-driven Friday. All their bodies were recovered from the scene of the accident.

East Haven Police on Saturday released the names of the victims of the accident, including Henningsgaard, 54, of Medina, Washington; her 17-year-old son; 13-year-old Sade Brantley and 1-year-old Madisyn Mitchell, who lived in East Haven House hit by the plane.

Researcher of National Transportation Safety Board Patrick Murray said on Saturday that the plane was upside down when it struck a House at an angle of 60 degrees. He said that the pilot was doing his first approach to the airport and not declared an emergency before the accident.

After removing the remains and before analyzing the data, he said at a news conference in New Haven, "we don't have any indication there was something wrong with the plane."

A preliminary report by the NTSB's accident is expected within 10 days. A more comprehensive report could take up to nine months.

On Saturday night, dozens of people were for a vigil in Margaret Tucker Park to honor those who died in the accident. Among the attendees was the woman who lost two sons when the plane hit their house.

Mayor Joseph Maturo told the crowd at the vigil that the demonstration of support was a great tribute.

"I think it is a great tribute to a great people," said the Mayor, "a dedicated people, a loving people. A town that comes to light when things don't work and the people need you."

Governor Dannel Malloy said in a statement that the Vigil was a "deep statement of the ties that bind together as a community East Haven and all of our State".

"When a family suffers an unimaginable tragedy, come together and pray that they have the strength they need to carry out," said Malloy. "Our thoughts and prayers are with all the families tonight who are suffering from pain and loss."

Henningsgaard, a well-respected philanthropist, was flying a small plane to Seattle in 2009 with its mother when it leaves the engine. He crashed in the Colombia River, Washington.

"Myself to face that fact that the situation of any pilots fears - an emergency in the air, it was then, what happens with my mother on the plane," he wrote in a blog, days later.

In the accident in Connecticut, Henningsgaard brought the 10-seater plane, a Rockwell International Turbo Commander 690B, for a landing at Tweed New Haven Airport in rainy weather before midday when the plane hit two small houses, engulfing them in flames. The aircraft left wing lodged in a House and its right wing on the other.

As mother of the children shouted asking for help from the lawn, several people in the working-class district rushed to rescue the children, but were forced to return fire.

A neighbor, David Esposito, was among those who rushed to help the mother of the children. He said he met with top House, where the woman believed they were his children, but found them after frantically looking for a crib and cabinets. He returned to search a little further down, but he dragged the woman when the flames became too strong.

The family of the pilot had learned was Bill Henningsgaard aircraft by tail number, said his brother, Blair Henninsgaard, in Astoria, Oregon City Attorney

In 2009, Bill Henningsgaard flying from Astoria, Oregon with her 84-year-old mother to see her daughter in a high school play when it collided with the River as he tried to slide to the airport. He and his mother, a former Mayor of Astoria, went to a wing and were rescued.

Henningsgaard was a member of based on Seattle Social Venture Partners, a foundation that helps build communities. The Foundation extended its condolences to his wife and two daughters.

"There are hundreds of people who have a story about Bill - when he went the extra mile, when he knew what to say, how they would never leave."It was truly All in for this community, heart, mind and soul, the Foundation wrote on Friday in a post on its website.

Paul Shoemaker's Social Venture Partners told The Seattle Times that Henningsgaard was "incredibly good, real, honest, for the community, for his family, for this world. ''

"" The guy has already done much for the world. ""And I was going to do a lot more, he said.

Henningsgaard spent 14 years at Microsoft in various positions in sales and marketing, according to his biography on the Web site Social Venture Partners. He was a member of the Board since a long time ago in Youth Eastside Services, an agency based in Bellevue, Washington, which provides counseling and substance abuse treatment, and led the fundraising campaign of $10.7 million from the Organization for its new headquarters, which opened its doors in 2008.

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Writers associated press Steven DuBois in Portland, Oregon, Gene Johnson in Seattle and John Christoffersen in East Haven, Connecticut, contributed to this report.

Philadelphia building collapse: rescue and search teams pull a survivor 14 debris (VIDEOS)

People sifted through the rubble after a collapsed building on Market Street tomorrow on Wednesday of four floors.

PHILADELPHIA - After a search overnight slow but steady by the discovery of a woman in the rubble, rescue workers at the scene of a collapse of building that killed six people was a temporary break on Thursday in what had been an excavation 24 hours for additional victims.

A building demolition collapsed in a neighbouring tent Wednesday morning, injuring at least 14 people, including a 61-year-old woman, pulled out from the rubble nearly 13 hours later and hospitalized in critical condition.

The authorities have not officially ended the search, but the sense of urgency dissipated after workers hairstyles of bricks and rubble with buckets and your hands well into the night.

"We are going to keep looking until we are absolutely sure that no one is there," fire Battalion Chief Charles Lupre said shortly before dawn. He said there were no reports of anyone missing, but there was always the possibility that someone was inside that not disappeared.

It was not clear what role it might have played the work of demolition in the collapse, but the accident raised questions about how closely the highly visible location on Market Street, one of the boulevards of Philadelphia firm, was monitored, particularly in the middle of the word of the demolition contractor of many legal and financial problems. Officials from the Department of work and safety and health administration were at the scene.

For weeks, people who work nearby had noted with concern as a team took the vacant four-story building next to a Salvation Army store on the edge of the city centre.

A roofer on top of another building, did not think that the operation seemed safe. A couple of window opposite the exposed washers a section without support, 30 feet from the wall and predicted among themselves throughout the building simply would fall down.

On Wednesday, it is what happened. Unstable shell of a building collapsed in a huge pile of bricks and wood splintered, participating in the shop with him.

"Our thoughts and our prayers to those who lost their lives and their families," Mayor Michael Nutter said at a press conference in the afternoon in the evening where he announced the death toll. "At the same time, we pray that those who survive will recover not only physically, but mentally definitely by the trauma of living in a building and suddenly collapses."

The witnesses said that they heard a strong ROAR sound immediately before the collapse.

"I was there looking out my window, watching the men working in the building and the next thing I know I heard something go kaboom," said Veronica Haynes, who was on the fifth floor of a building across the street. "Then you saw the whole side of the fall of the wall down... in the other building."

Several witnesses said that they had been interrogated to tackling workers in demolition work.

Roofer Patrick Glynn said that he had been watching workers demolish the building in recent weeks, and told me that he suspected that a collapse was inevitable because of the way they were upon him.

"For weeks that have been standing at the edge, knocking bricks," he said. "Hardly noticed that he was ready to go at any time. I knew that it was going to happen."

Steve Cramer, who has been working as a washer of the window across the street, said the demolition team let up to 30 feet of a dividing wall is strapless and compromised the integrity of the building

"We have been calling for the last week, it will fall, it will fall," his co-worker, said Dan Gillis.

Officials said that the demolition contractor was Griffin Campbell construction in Philadelphia. Campbell messages were not returned.

Records show that Campbell was accused in 2005 of dealing crack cocaine near a children's playground. Charges were dismissed after prosecutors evidence out of place.

He pleaded guilty in a case in 2009 insurance fraud and was acquitted of aggravated assault and offenses in 2007.

Campbell has also filed for bankruptcy protection twice since 2010. The first bankruptcy was dismissed because he did not follow through a court-approved payment plan. A second petition in bankruptcy was filed in March.

There was no violation in the collapsed building, and Campbell had the proper permits for the work, according to Carlton Williams, from the Department of licenses and inspections of the city.

The city issued a permit for the demolition of the four-story structure on February 1. Records show the owner of the property as STB Investment Corp., a businessman linked to prominent company and developer Richard Basciano, who has been known as the owner of porn cinemas in the city of New York and Philadelphia.

Messages left at the offices of New York of the company were not immediately returned.

The accident occurred on the western edge of the city centre, between the business district and its train terminal, 30th Street station. The block had been a sordid link gleaming skyscrapers from the busy area around the station.

The collapse involved an empty building that once housed a sandwich shop floor and apartments above. The thrift shop was on one side. The other side was a library for adults and theatre that had fallen in recent months.

A demolition expert asked what precautions were taken to protect the store from the Salvation Army, especially since it remained open. Stephen Estrin, a contractor from Florida who has testified as an expert in several trials involving building collapses, also questioned whether the demolition was done by hand or with machinery. A piece of equipment with a claw device was seen amid the rubble Wednesday.

"This is a demolition of the center of the city of a masonry building, which would normally be done manually due to the inherent risk - predictable if certain things are not made very slowly and carefully — a collapse", said Estrin. "One of the problems with the work of the claw is set up a vibration in the walls."

Records show that the collapsed building was sold to STB in 1994 for $385.894. Plans call for tentatively as the block to be rebuilt in shops and apartments.

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Rubinkam reported from Northeastern Pennsylvania. Associated with writers Ron Todt and Maryclaire Dale press also contributed to this story.

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