NEW BEDFORD, MASS. (WHDH) - The pilot of a small plane that departed New Bedford Regional Airport died after crashing in a nearby cemetery on Monday afternoon, the National Transportation Safety Board said.
Emergency crews responding to the Rural Cemetery near Rockdale Avenue at Grape Street around 3 p.m. found a Cessna 150 in pieces among rows of tombstones, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The pilot was the lone individual on the plane, the FAA said. Their name has not been released.
There were no other reported injuries.
Video from Sky7 HD showed the plane’s wreckage scattered all over the ground and a toppled tree that the aircraft appeared to have hit.
Chris Peyton told 7NEWS that the pilot was flying too low to the ground and performing aerial acrobatics before nosediving into the ground.
“It was doing a couple of loopity loops but really too low for the acrobats he was trying to perform,” Peyton said. “As I was approaching the cemetery, he got below the tree line but it was more like a nosedive. I knew at that point he wasn’t going to be able to come out of the trick he was trying to perform.”
Troopers assigned to the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office have been called to the scene, Massachusetts State Police Spokesman David Procopio said.
The NTSB is assisting with an investigation.
No additional information was immediately available.
NTSB investigating today's crash of Cessna 150 in New Bedford, Mass.
— NTSB Newsroom (@NTSB_Newsroom) November 4, 2019
This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS for updates online and on-air.
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