One person dead, two injured after a plane crashes in Falmouth

By Katherine Landergan, Globe Correspondent

A plane crashed and burst into flames near the Falmouth Airpark this morning, leaving two people with life-threatening burns and a third person trapped inside, officials said.

Holly Baker, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said local authorities have one confirmed fatality, though she did not know which victim had died.

Massachusetts State Police officials said in an earlier statement that the condition of the person trapped in the plane was unknown.

Baker said the aircraft had departed from Falmouth Airpark at 11:02 a.m. and was heading back to the airport when it crashed.

At 11:05 a.m. firefighters responded to an area near the Falmouth Airpark, where they found “heavy fire to the aircraft and a small forest fire,” said Falmouth Deputy Fire Chief Glen Rogers.

“I’ve been here for 32 years, and we’ve maybe had another incident of this severity,” said Rogers.

Falmouth paramedics treated the two victims who were taken from the plan at the scene for their burns. Shortly after, they were medflighted to burn centers.

Officials said the identities of the victims were unknown.

“The fire was knocked down in half an hour,” Rogers said. “As you can imagine, we had our hands full.”

The Falmouth Airpark is generally used as a landing area by small planes and crashes are infrequent, Rogers said.

In the past year one incident was reported, in which a plane was caught in a tree, Rogers said. The pilot was not injured.

“It’s very rare for us even to have a minor accident,” he said.