Four bodies have been recovered from two homes struck by a small plane that took off from Teterboro Airport crashed in East Haven, Connecticut near an airport and engulfed the houses in flames.

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Inspectors at plane crash site in East Haven, Connecticut
Inspectors at plane crash site in East Haven, Connecticut (Twitter)
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6:00 p.m. -Federal safety investigator Patrick Murray said at a news conference Saturday in New Haven that he would have a preliminary report within 10 days but it would be months before a final determination is made of the cause of Friday's accident. He said the plane landed upside down at an angle on two East Haven homes as the pilot was apparently turning to land at Tweed New Haven Airport in rainy weather.

12:35 p.m. - WFSB TV identifies the two children who lived inside the home struck by the plane as Sadie Brantley, 13, and Madisyn Mitchell, 1. Their mother is Joann Mitchell, 39, who escaped the home.


EARLIER:

NTSB investigator Robert Gretz says there are reports of two or three people in the plane and two or three on the ground. He says local and state authorities are at the scene looking for victims and it will be up to them to identify the victims.

The plane took off from Teterboro Airport on Friday morning.

A number of sources, however, have reported the plane's pilot, Bill Henningsgaard and his son Maxwell,17, as victims of the crash. The Seattle Times reports that Henningsgaard and his son were visiting colleges on the east coast. Earlier reports were that the plane was registered to a Washington State company and that the plane flew from Maryland to Teterboro on Thursday.

Henningsgaard's company, Social Venture Partners, a Seattle foundation posted a notice on its website that its former chairman has died.  His mother, the former mayor of Astoria, Washington told the Daily Astorian that her son had died in the crash.

The multi-engine, propeller-driven plane struck the homes a few blocks from Tweed New Haven Airport as it went in for a landing Friday morning.

Neighbor David Esposito says he heard a loud noise and then a thump. He says a woman "was screaming her kids were in there."

Tweed's airport manager says the pilot had been in communication with air traffic control and hadn't issued any distress calls.


The Associated Press contributed to this report

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