From NBC News:”
A small plane that crashed in East Hartford, Conn., was brought down on purpose, investigators said Wednesday.
East Hartford police Lt. Josh Litwin told reporters Wednesday that investigators had concluded that the crash Tuesday afternoon was “an intentional act” but that that hadn’t been able to determine a motive.
“All windows are open at this point,” he said.
A senior federal law enforcement official told NBC News that moments before the crash, the student pilot of the Piper PA-34 Seneca, identified as Feras M. Freitekh, was arguing with his instructor. There was no immediate evidence that the incident was linked to terrorism, the official said.
A U.S. official familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press that the crash appeared to have been a case of suicide. Both the National Transportation Safety Board and the FBI are part of the joint investigation, authorities said.
Freitekh struck a utility pole and wires, knocking out power to a residential East Hartford neighborhood and causing a fire to engulf the aircraft, witnesses told The Hartford Courant.
Freitekh died at the scene, federal officials told NBC News. The flight instructor — identified as American Flight Academy owner Arian Prevalla — crawled from the burning plane and was in fair condition Wednesday at Yale New Haven Bridgeport Hospital, a spokesman told NBC News.
Litwin said local and federal investigators had been able to interview Prevalla.
The plane took off from Hartford-Brainard Airport south of downtown Hartford, authorities said. It crashed near the offices of defense contractor Pratt & Whitney, which manufactures jet engines, and was attached to a nearby flight school, police told NBC Connecticut.
Litwin wouldn’t confirm the identities of relationship of the two people on board, telling reporters that the investigation was “extremely active” and “still in its infancy.”
