Greenfield plane crash victims identified as flight instructors, student

The owner of a Western Massachusetts flight school, an instructor from the school and a student pilot were the three people killed in a Greenfield plane crash over the weekend, State Police said Monday.

The victims of the crash were Fredrika Ballard, 53, of Southwick, William Hampton, 68, of Indian Orchard, and Chad Davidson, 29, of Woodstock, Conn., according to the state police.

Ballard was the owner of the Fly Lugu flight school, where Hampton was a flight instructor, according to state police. Davidson was a student, state police said.

The website for Fly Lugu, which is in Westfield, identifies "Rika" Ballard as a second-generation pilot who founded of the company. According to the website, she started making solo flights from nearby Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport at age 16, and then "returned" to flying in 2016.

"Her goal is to engage the greater Westfield community with the wonderful world of aviation and help new aviators achieve their goal of being skybound," the website says.

Bill Hampton, chief pilot at Fly Lugu, spent more than 13,600 hours in the air, according to the website.

It said he taught hundreds of students how to fly airplanes, seaplanes, gliders, helicopters, and balloons.

"His desire to give back to the aviation community is what inspired him to become a certified instructor in every category and class of aircraft and as a result he has changed many lives for the better," the site says.

The plane, a Beechcraft 55 Baron Twin-Piston owned by Fly Lugu, departed from Westfield-Barnes just after 11 a.m. Sunday, according to state police.

Authorities police received several 911 calls reporting a plane crash at 11:26 a.m. Police contacted Westfield-Barnes, which said that it had received the signal from a plane's emergency beacon, Greenfield police Deputy Chief William Gordon said Sunday at the scene.

Police officers and firefighters raced to the area [1] and deployed a Greenfield Fire Department drone to locate the crash site in about four minutes, he said.

It took crews about 10 minutes riding two- and four-seater all-terrain vehicles to travel on narrow dirt roads and reach the plane, which was found intact and in an upright position near the Leyden border, he said.

Troopers confirmed that the three victims were the plane's only occupants.

State police said Greenfield Firefighters and American Medical Response paramedics deemed them dead at the site.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will determine the cause and manner of the deaths.

State police said inspectors from the Federal Aviation Administration responded to the crash on Sunday, and a National Transportation Safety Board investigator was expected to arrive on Monday.

Sean Cotter can be reached at [email protected][2].

Follow him @cotterreporter [3].

References

^ Police officers and firefighters raced to the area (www.bostonglobe.com)
^ [email protected] (www.bostonglobe.com)
^ @cotterreporter (www.twitter.com)