Plane crash investigation to be lengthy

HOOKSETT, N.H. (AP) -- New Hampshire State Police say they anticipate a "lengthy" investigation in determining the cause of the small plane crash that killed a Rhode Island couple.

The single-engine Beechcraft hit a light pole alongside the northbound lanes of Interstate 93 in Hooksett on Thursday afternoon, sending it crashing onto the highway and partially into the woods next to the road.

Killed were Herman and Doris Hassinger, who were both 83 and from Block Island.

Police say one body was in the plane. The other was ejected from the plane and found a distance away in a wooded median strip.

Lt. Chris Wagner said police were still working Friday with the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board on the crash.

 "This absolutely could have been a lot worse," Wagner said.

The Hassingers were en route to this weekend's board of trustees' meeting at the New Hampton School, where Herman Hassinger was a longtime trustee.

Wagner said state police received the first call about the plane crash at 1:10 p.m Thursday. When they arrived, there was no one at the scene who had witnessed the plane go down.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane had taken off from Nashua and was en route to Laconia.

A spokeswoman for the Rhode Island Airport Corporation said the plane had left Block Island Airport sometime Thursday.

FAA records show the plane was involved in an accident in August 2010 at Nashua's Boire Field after the landing gear failed. The plane skidded about 700 feet before coming to a rest on its belly. The pilot was Herman Hassinger of Block Island and the plane was registered to him. A phone message left at his home was not returned.

That same plane was involve in a hard landing at the Falmouth Airpark on Cape Cod in July 1993 and was blown off a runway at Beaumont Municipal Airport in Texas while taxiing behind a much larger plane in 1979, according to FAA records. The records do not identify the pilot of the plane on those occasions.

According to the FAA registry, the plane was registered to Herman Hassinger Architects in Block Island.

Herman Hassinger was listed in the 2006 edition of "Who's Who in America" as CEO of Herman Hassinger Architects in Moorestown, N.J. The company's phone number is no longer in service, according to a recorded message Thursday.

According to the biography in that edition, Hassinger was born in Germany, and he and Doris have three children. Under "interests" he listed aviation and sailing.