DARTMOUTH, MASS. (WHDH) - New video shows a man driving towards thick, black smoke on I-195 in Dartmouth Monday, just after a small plane crashed into the highway, killing a Rhode Island couple and injuring another woman on the ground.
As the man drives closer, he spots flames near the guardrail to his right, then looks to his left and sees the airplane on fire.
Robert Fouquette, the owner of Big Wheel Towing & Recovery in East Freetown, was among the first called out to the crash site.
“We were notified right after it happened,” said Fouquette. “We responded just in case the Dartmouth Fire and Rescue was gonna require the plane was to be lifted up because sometimes people get stuck underneath these planes when they crash.
Fouquette said when he arrived he found fire was burning in the tree tops, in the brush, and igniting fuel that spilled across the highway.
“There was about, supposedly about 290 gallons of jet fuel on that plane. The jets broke. We had a hazmat truck out there to clean up the spill,” said Fouquette.
As the tow company assisted with the clean up, the driver pulled over and continued recording. Authorities said the plane sideswiped a moving car before bursting into flames. Cellphone captured video picking up some of the debris from the impact.
“When it hit, it pushed it along and dragged it into the center median,” said Fouquette.
That driver’s car was severely damaged.
A man who said he’s the driver’s grandfather said the woman is recovering.
“The wing of the plane hit the side of that car,” he said. “She didn’t see it coming. She got out of the car, a woman stopped by, let’s go, picked her up, took her to St. Luke’s Hospital.”
The wreckage was removed from the median as federal investigators from the NTSB continue their investigation into the cause of that crash. They arrived Tuesday to inspect the charred fuselage for evidence.
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