A preliminary National Transportation Safety Board report on the plane crash that killed a Cheshire doctor at Meriden Markham Airport on April 24 shows he was at the controls at the time of the accident.
Joseph Tomanelli, 56, died and his 21-year-old son was seriously injured in the crash.
According to the NTSB, the elder Tomanelli was piloting the Cirrus SR22 plane which he bought just three weeks before the accident. Tomanelli wanted to practice in the new plane for a planned trip to North Carolina, the NTSB report states.
Investigators spoke with several witnesses and reviewed security camera video to determine the cause of the crash.
The report states the plane made one landing at the airport and witnesses told investigators the plane flared about 10 feet above the runway, came down and bounced three times before taking off again.
On a second approach, the plane flared again, abruptly touched down halfway down the runway and then the engines accelerated, according to the NTSB report.
The plane then rolled to the left and came down, slid across the ground, through a fence and caught fire on Hanover Avenue in Wallingford, investigators determined.
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Tomanelli was a physician with Hartford Healthcare.
