A plane crashed 150 yards from the runway at Piseco Airport on July 12, killing the pilot, Kenneth Andreu, 74, as investigators worked at the site of the wreck in Hamilton County.
Andreu was the only person aboard the single-engine Cessna 182J Skyline, a 1966 aircraft that had left Hudson Valley Regional Airport en route to Piseco Airport before it went down in a wooded area. No other injuries were reported because he was the sole occupant.
The crash is drawing attention because it happened on a day when the flight was already well into its trip, yet the reason for the loss of control remained unknown at the time of the report. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were at the site, where the aircraft was destroyed and the inquiry was expected to move forward.
Hudson Valley Regional Airport was formerly known as the Dutchess County Airport, and the distance from the runway underscores how close the plane came to the airport before the flight ended. For now, the unanswered question is not where the crash happened, but what caused a fatal descent so near the runway.
