A gust of wind challenged a pilot’s attempt to land at the Block Island State Airport on July 30, lifting up the airplane’s wing moments before a crash that was fatal for one of the two passengers in the plane.
Without sufficient runway remaining to abort the attempted landing, go around, and try again, the plane overran the runway and hit trees.
Both of those points are among some preliminary findings reached by the National Transportation Safety Board, which continues to investigate the crash.
The NTSB’s preliminary report also states:
The craft touched down on the 2,500-foot runway at Block Island with about 1,000 feet of runway left.
Air traffic controllers had warned the pilot several times that he was reporting his positions over the wrong radio frequency.
The attempted landing had followed two prior go-rounds: Initially, the pilot had been on a final approach before he saw an airplane departing the runway and aborted. Then, on a second attempt, the pilot was too close to the runway when he turned onto a course for final approach, which led to a second go-round.
A ‘substantially damaged’ airplane
The plane’s initial contact with trees near the runway happened in a section of canopy about 50 feet off the ground, the report says. The location of that impact was 467 feet from the end of the runway, it says.
A path of wreckage traced by investigators was about 173 feet in length, the report says.
The airplane came to rest, inverted, “substantially damaged” and about 640 feet from the end of the runway, investigators say.
Through their investigation of the airframe and engine, investigators determined that the plane’s cockpit had “continuity” with all surfaces of flight control, such as the plane’s flaps.
Investigators also determined that fuel was in the Piper’s fuel system and the system itself had “continuity.”
Daniel Wilson, a county legislator and civil engineer from Amsterdam, New York, died after the small airplane he was in crashed as it tried to land on Block Island on July 30, 2025.
Flight launched from Albany
The pilot and two passengers had departed the international airport in Albany, New York, at about 10:50 a.m. that morning, the report says.
The crash of the Piper PA-28-181 took place at about 12:10 p.m.
The pilot, who is not named in the report, was seriously injured. One passenger’s injuries were minor.
The other passenger, who was fatally injured, was a 76-year-old New York county legislator, Daniel Wilson.
The NTSB’s website offers a collection of reports on fatal Rhode Island aviation crashes, which help account for 102 previous aviation deaths in Rhode Island dating back to 1962.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Plane overran runway at Block Island before fatal crash, NTSB says