Middletown, Rhode Island – May 25, 1998
On May 25, 1998, a single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza with four people aboard took off from Nantucket, Massachusetts, bound for Connecticut when it developed engine trouble while in-route. The nearest airport at the time of the trouble was Rhode Island’s Newport State Airport, which is actually in Middletown, Rhode Island. As the plane was making its approach, it crashed into a tree at the edge of a field off Jepson Road in Middletown and burst into flame. Two people in the rear of the plane managed to escape, but the two in front perished. The survivors were transported to Newport Hospital and were later transferred by helicopter to hospitals in Massachusetts.
Sources:
Providence Journal, “Middletown Plane Crash Kills Two, Injures Two”, May 26, 1998
Westerly Sun, “Plane Crash Leaves Two Dead”, May 26, 1998
