Federal investigators will begin sorting the details of a plane crash Sunday that killed two men near Ithaca.
The Tompkins County Sheriff's Office reports that a private plane received clearance at 11:24 a.m. Sunday to take off from Ithaca Tompkins International Airport. The plane was a Lake Aircraft LA-4. It’s an amphibious seaplane that seats up to three people.
The control tower's last contact with the plane was at 12:02 p.m. At 12:35 p.m., the county's 911 center received a call that reported hearing a plane crash. The caller said that the plane appeared to have some kind of mechanical trouble as it passed overhead.
The plane crashed cockpit-first into an open area in the 100 block of North Applegate Road in the town of Enfield. The crash site is near a public golf course and is about 10 miles from the airport.
Crews arrived to find the pilot and plane owner, 52-year-old David Kornreich, dead at the scene. They rushed his passenger, 31-year-old Andrew Harrell, to Cayuga Medical Center, but he died at the hospital.
"This is a terrible and tragic situation," said Tompkins County Sheriff Derek Osborne. "Our hearts go out to the friends and family of the victims.”
