The crash, which happened at about 9:40 p.m. on May 31, 2014 at the Hanscom Field, Bedford, MA killed all of those on board, including the passengers and the flight crew. Investigators are now trying to determine why the private jet, which was attempting a routine takeoff it had completed dozens of times, was never able to get off of the tarmac.
The victims included well known business men and women returning home to New Jersey after attending a nonprofit fund-raiser event at the Concord home of former presidential advisor Richard Goodwin and wife. The crash was described by witnesses as a “loud explosion and then a mushroom cloud” and the scene as “absolutely horrific” as coroners removed the seven bodies from the fiery scene. A pungent smell, similar to that or burning tires could be smelled as far away as Cambridge and Boston late into Saturday night.
Initial investigations are underway as crew members search for the jet’s flight recorders to shed some light into what may have caused the fiery Hanscom Airfield crash. Flights into Hanscom Field were being diverted into Logan Airport, as reported by Mass. Port Authority Director Ed Ferin during a press conference on June 1, 2014.
Our thoughts go out to the friends and families of those lost in this tragedy.
Photo credit: Chris Devers / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
