Two men dead after small plane crashes in western New York

A small plane crashed in western New York on Tuesday afternoon, killing two people, officials said.

The single-engine Cirrus SR-22 was engulfed in flames when it crashed shortly after takeoff from the Jamestown, New York airport, authorities said. Two adult men were on the plane when it crashed. They have not yet been publicly identified. 

The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will handle the investigation into the crash. An NTSB investigator is set to arrive at the scene Wednesday morning.

Officials do not yet know what caused the crash, Chautauqua County Sheriff James Quattrone said during a press conference. The plane went down in a lightly wooded area close to a field. 

“The location of the crash, I would say that it was some type of catastrophic failure that led them to go into that field area,” Quattrone said.

The plane took off from Oshawa, in Ontario, Canada, in the morning, arrived at an airport in Erie, Pennsylvania, and then landed at Jamestown Airport in the afternoon.

Heavy smoke from wildfires in Quebec was blowing through large swathes of the Northeast on Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service. Quattrone said he doesn’t believe wildfire smoke played a role in the crash but he would defer to NTSB investigators. An NTSB official said reduced visibility can pose problems, but she declined to speculate about the conditions during Tuesday’s crash. 

Quattrone said there’s no indication that the pilot issued a mayday call before the crash. Officials believe the plane, which had a 92-gallon engine, was refueled shortly before the crash, which could have contributed to the intensity of the fire. 

“There’s nothing left of the plane. There’s parts,” Quattrone said.

Once the NTSB investigator arrives, the crash site and plane will be evaluated. A preliminary report is expected in 2-3 weeks.

The crash came two days after four people died when an unresponsive Cessna Citation airplane flew over Washington, D.C., and then went down in Virginia.