Mass. man among two victims identified in N.H. plane crash

Police in Keene, N.H. on Monday identified the two men killed Friday in a plane crash in that city as residents of Massachusetts and Vermont.

Lawrence Marchiony, 41, of Templeton, and Marvin David Dezendorf, 60, of Townshend, Vt., were on board a single-engine Beech A24R aircraft that took off northbound from Keene Dillant-Hopkins Airport shortly before 7 p.m. Friday. The plane went down about a half-mile from the airport, crashing into a four-family apartment building on Main Street. No residents were harmed.

Tim Monville, a senior air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, said Sunday there were no reports of problems before the crash. Both Marchiony and Dezendorf were rated as pilots.

One of the men had said they were planning to remain in the traffic pattern around the airport after taking off, Monville said. The crash remains under investigation.

The plane was owned by Monadnock Aviation, a business that operates at Dillant-Hopkins Airport and offers charter flights, flight instruction, and aircraft rentals, officials said.

Scott Gauthier, 44, who lives in the apartment building with his 66-year-old mother, said the force of the impact knocked him from his seat.

“It felt like a bonfire,” he said. Bryan Lodge, 35, of nearby Greenwood Avenue, said he was home with his 7-year-old son at the time of the crash. He heard the sound of a plane overhead and two loud bangs. He looked out his front windows and heard another loud bang. He looked out his back window and saw flames rising from the crash site, he said. He ran to the scene to help and felt the heat from the fire.

“I have never seen anything like it,” Lodge said. “It is a very uneasy feeling seeing that and not being able to do anything to help.”

‘It is a very uneasy feeling seeing that and not being able to do anything to help.’

BRYAN LODGE crash witness