An Athens,Tn., physician, his wife and college-age daughter died Sunday evening in the crash of a small plane that struck a house 30 miles southwest of Boston on Sunday evening.
The victims were Dr. Joseph Rick Kalister, the emergency room director at Starr Regional Medical Center's Athens campus, wife, Betty, and their daughter.
The doctor and his wife were en route for a college visit with their daughter.
The plane was owned by Cleveland, Tn., physician, Dr. Rickey Hutcheson, of Tennessee Valley Bone and Joint on Ocoee Street.
Those in the house at Plainville, Mass., escaped as it caught fire.
The Beechcraft BE36 aircraft was listed in the name of Island Airways of Cleveland, Tn.
The plane had stopped earlier to refuel in Lancaster, Pa., and was headed to Norwood Memorial Airport in Massachusetts. It left Cleveland at 12:18 p.m. and arrived in Lancaster, Pa., at 3:21 p.m.
The plane went into the home at 25 Bridle Path about 5:45 p.m.
Authorities said the pilot informed air traffic controllers that he was "unable to maintain altitude" and was in distress. He was unable to make it to the nearest airport, North Central State Airport in Rhode Island, which was some seven miles away.
Air controllers had also advised a possible landing on Interstate 495, but the plane also was unable to reach the freeway.
The pilot said, "We've got a real bad vibration. We’re losing engines. We have no engines.”
Residents said the engine started to sputter before going down.