DIFFERENT DIRECTION

In the preliminary report, the crash is listed an accident, but no possible cause was indicated.

Three witnesses in the investigation described how the small twin-engine plane went “nose-high” to about 400 feet and abruptly barrel-rolled before crashing straight down into trees beside the runway.

The plane’s instrument flight plan had been filed for a flight to Fitchburg Municipal Airport in Fitchburg, Mass., but Thomas (Cook), the pilot, had told the airport’s service technician, who fueled the airplane’s tanks, that he was “flying to Minnesota and then California,” the report said.

An airport technician reported putting 44 gallons into the plane’s main fuel tanks, filling it.

NO WRECKAGE PATH

At the crash site, National Transportation Safety Board reported the tail section was broken off to one side and the wings were bent, one fore the other aft.

“Except for ground scars consistent with an approximately 10-foot bound, there was no wreckage path,” investigator Paul Cox wrote.

FRIENDS UPSET

News of the accident stunned the pilot’s Beechcraft colleagues.

A few friends in Beechcraft clubs around the country had shared reminiscences of Thomas’s life in days following the crash.

One friend, Stephen St. Louis, e-mailed the Press-Republican, saying he had known Thomas for three years and considered him a father figure.

“Scott and I were very close friends for the past three years,” St. Louis wrote.