Traffic on Interstate 195 came to a sudden halt Monday morning when a small plane went down in the middle of the highway in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. The aircraft burst into flames, claiming the lives of two Rhode Island residents and injuring a motorist.
The deceased were identified as 68-year-old Thomas Perkins and his 66-year-old wife, Agatha Perkins, from Middletown. The couple had departed from New Bedford Regional Airport.
Their flight ended in tragedy just minutes after 8 a.m. when the aircraft, a Socata TBM 700 registered to Easton Air, LLC, crashed onto the grassy median separating the eastbound and westbound lanes of I-195.
Smoke billowed into the air, and traffic came to a standstill while emergency responders rushed to the scene. Authorities from the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office confirmed that the married couple were discovered inside the fuselage with fatal injuries. Despite the quick response of emergency crews, neither could be saved.
A female motorist, driving a silver Hyundai Sonata, was also injured when part of the plane struck her car. She was rushed to a local hospital and is expected to recover.
Video captured from passing motorists showed the wreckage engulfed in flames as first responders worked to secure the scene. Debris from the aircraft was scattered into a nearby woodline, while the main body of the plane remained on the median.
State police temporarily closed all lanes of the interstate to allow investigators and cleanup crews to work safely. By late morning, traffic had resumed in both directions.
Officials noted that the pilot did not appear to have filed a flight plan before departure, and it remains unclear how many people were initially believed to be on board.
The National Transportation Safety Board has taken over the investigation and will work to determine what led to the crash. The incident occurred as a slow-moving nor’easter swept across Massachusetts, bringing strong winds and rain, conditions that may have complicated the short flight’s fate.
