Here is a report from the Syracuse Post-Standard, a witness is quoted seeing the plane is an inverted flat spin!
Small Plane Crashes; No Survivors
Witness found two bodies in wreckage in wooded area of Parish in Oswego County.
April 25, 2002
By John O’Brien
Staff writer
A small plane crashed Wednesday night deep in the woods of Parish, in Oswego County, apparently killing two people.
State troopers and firefighters trudged about a half mile through heavy brush and mud to a small hill where the wreckage was still burning two hours after the plane crashed around 7 p.m.
State Trooper Eric Knapp said there were no survivors but could not confirm how many people died. State police secured the crash site, a half-mile south of Voorhees Road and a half-mile west of Dutch Hill Road. The wreckage and any bodies would remain at the scene until the Federal Aviation Administration arrived, he said. He said investigators could be on the scene well into the morning.
Leroy Bennett was unloading feed outside his house on Voorhees Road about 7 p.m. when he saw a small, all-white plane. The plane rolled upside down, went into a spin, then went into a “flat spin” - spiraling straight for the ground, he said.
Bennett, who describes himself as an aircraft buff, said he pointed out the plane to his wife when it started spinning. “I hope this guy knows what he’s doing,” he told her. “He’s gonna crash.”
Bennett heard a loud explosion. They went to the site of the crash, following a plume of black smoke a half mile west of Dutch Hill Road.
He said he saw two bodies inside the burning wreckage. One of the bodies was partly out of the plane as if it had been thrown out in the crash, he said. The bodies were burned beyond recognition, he said.
Steve Pappa was surfing the Internet when he heard a plane flying over his house on Dutch Hill Road, off Route 69.
“The engine cut out then fired back up,” Pappa said. “It cut out again. Then there were a couple backfires. Ten or 15 seconds later I heard a loud bang like a rifle.”
Two seconds later, Pappa felt the concussion from the crash shake his house, he said.
“Pictures rattled,” he said. “It felt like an earthquake.”
Pappa and his brother-in-law, Matt Hall, followed the plume of smoke through the woods to where the plane crashed. The plane was still burning when they got there. “There was nothing left to it,” Hall said.
Hall, Pappa and two other men helped rescuers find a path through the woods to the wreckage. They left a trail of markers so the rescuers could find their way out.
“You get back in there and one hill looks like the next,” Hall said. “Before you know it, you’ve gone 20 miles too far.”
A state police helicopter circled the wreckage site to provide lighting for the rescue workers.
As of 9 p.m., the team of rescue workers was still in the woods at the crash site.
West Amboy, Parish and Hastings fire departments responded to the crash. Staff writers Sterling Gray, Jennifer Jacobs and Catie O’Toole contributed to this report.
© 2002 The Post-Standard. Used with permission.