HANSON, MASS. (WHDH) - One man has died and another is paralyzed after being pulled from a plane that crashed near an airport in Hanson Friday afternoon.
The manager of Cranland Airport, Peter Oakley, confirms that Scott Landis, the pilot of the small plane, has died of injuries he sustained in the crash.
Emergency crews from several area communities responded to the area of 775 Monponsett St., which is located near the one runway airport, after receiving word of a plane crash around 4 p.m.
Landis and his brother, Patrick, were flying the 7AC Champion aircraft to spread their late father’s ashes when it plummeted from the sky.
Patrick Landis, 29, was transported to Tufts Medical Center. According to family, he is expected to survive but is now paralyzed from the waist down due to a broken back and severed spinal cord.
Scott Landis is survived by his wife and young son.
“We are heartbroken,” Oakley said. “I’ve known him since I bought the airport in 2011. But he has been coming around since he was in high school he just loved aviation.”
The Hanson community is mourning the loss of the Army National Guard pilot.
He was granted leave from his deployment in Kosovo, where he worked as a Black Hawk helicopter pilot, to mourn the loss of his father.
“He was a father a son a soldier and a hero,” Landis’ best friend Adam Proloux said. “It’s almost as if he was born with wings.”
The Landis family has set up a GoFundMe page.
Authorities are still investigating the cause of the crash.
(Copyright (c) 2024 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)