Two MIT Students Die In Plane Crash

Students at MIT yesterday mourned the loss of two fellow undergraduates who were killed Sunday when a skydiver collided with the small airplane in which they were returning to campus.

Jonas R. Klein and Christina Park, both 18, were flying back from upstate New York to Boston's Logan International Airport when the crash occurred. The plane's pilot--Jonas' father Elliot Klein, 49--and the fourth passenger, family friend Jean Kimball, 45, were also killed in the crash.

Around 2:30 p.m. Sunday, skydiver Alfred Peters, 51, jumped from a Cessna aircraft and accelerated to about 120 miles per hour when he struck the rear of Klein's single-engine Piper Cherokee PA28. Peters, who had not yet opened his parachute, apparently hit the plane with his ankle, sending it into a fatal tailspin.

"He struck the vertical stabilizer in the rear of the aircraft causing it to go into a vertical tailspin from which it never recovered," Mary Culver, a spokesperson for the Federal Aviation Administration, said in a telephone interview yesterday.

While all four passengers aboard the aircraft were killed, the skydiver managed to open his parachute and sustained only a fractured leg and a broken ankle, Culver said.

Culver said Peters is an "accomplished skydiver" and that he had been cleared for his jump by air traffic controllers at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Conn.

The skydiver, who had logged 37 previous jumps, told authorities he leaped from the single-engine Cessna at about 8,000 feet above the airport. Within moments, he saw the Piper heading straight at him before he struck its tail section, according to Jeff Guzzetti, and inspector for the National Transportation Safety Board.

"As he was floating to earth...he saw this airplane spiraling to the ground." Guzzetti told the Associated Press.

Klein and Park were friends at MIT, where they had several common friends and shared an interest in techno-music, an MIT spokesperson said yesterday. Friends said the pair had traveled to Poughkeepsie, N.Y., for a techno-music concert, the spokesperson said.

Klein, who grew up in Monterey, Mass., and attended Northfield Mt. Herman High School, was a first-year student and a pledge at the Tau Epsilon Phi fraternity, said Charles H. Ball, an assistant director of the MIT news office. Klein would have been initiated into the fraternity in two weeks, Ball said.

"The brothers and friends of Tau Epsilon Phi mourn the loss of our brother Jonas. He was a hacker in every sense of the word, and we are going to miss him greatly. We send our love and condolences to his family, friends and everyone who knew him," Tau Epsilon Phi brother Adam C. Ganderson '97 said in a prepared statement read yesterday by the fraternity's chancellor.

Park, a native of Auburn, Washington, was a sophomore biology major who lived in the Senior House dorm on campus, Ball said, She attended Thomas Jefferson High School and was an oboe player for the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra.

Senior House Master John Hammond did not return a call to his office yesterday. Ball said Hammond, an MIT dean on call and a representative from MIT's medical center, met with students at Senior House Monday night to discuss the tragedy.

"It was almost like something in a movie. It wasn't real," said John Stergakis, of West Hartford, Conn., who was waiting to take his first-ever jump at the airport later that afternoon.

"We would call it a freak," said Jerry Rouillard, director of the U.S. Parachute Association in Alexandria, Va.

The Piper's wreckage lay Monday in woods one mile from the airport, its nose dug into the ground and its wing wrapped around a tree. Guzzetti said part of its rudder and the entire vertical tail fin, a three-foot-tall triangle of aluminum, were ripped off the craft. Authorities said there was no sign of fire.

Investigators said they could not immediately determine why the pilots were unaware of each other.

"All he keeps talking about is seeing thatplane coming at him," said Peters' wife, Joyce."He tried to get out of the way as best he could,but there wasn't much he could do and it hit hisankle"

The Piper's pilot, who was not required to filea flight plan, was flying under visual rules,Culver said. The Piper was flying about 15 milesnorth of a straight line between Boston andPoughkeepsie.

But it was not clear if the Piper's pilot wascomplying with flight rules by keeping his radiotuned for warnings as he entered the designatedjump zone, which extends three miles from theairport in all directions.

A management official at Northampton Airport,speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Piperdid not radio down to the airport to check for anypotential dangers, as some other pilots do."That's like driving through a shopping centerlike it's a highway," the official said.

"All can think of is the pilot may have beenoff course and did not know his location," saidDave Strickland, owner of the airport's sky-divingoperation Airborne Adventures. "We know he had amap out, because that was found in his lap at thecrash scene."

He said the jump zone was clearly marked on themap as an area to avoid. Also, the Piper's pilotapparently was not in radio contact with the localairport, and he wasn't listening to the frequencyon which the sky-diving pilot notified local airtraffic of the planned jump, Strickland said.

He said it appeared the plane came from behindand underneath his company's plane.

"The odds of a skydiver hitting an airplane areabout the same as a meteor hitting your car,"Strickland said. "We do 10,000 jumps a year...andwe've never had anybody come close to one of thejumpers in freefall before."

Strickland, who was one of five on the plane tojump after Peters, said he and the other jumperssaw nothing. But the plane's pilot saw the Pipercrash.

The pilot, who apparently had no idea the planehad collided with Peters, sent emergency radiomessages to the local airport and Bradley Field,then circled the crash site and guided emergencyvehicles by radio, Strickland said.

Peters, who was listed in stable condition atCooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, declinedto speak to reporters. But it seemed likely thatthe machine shop owner will now have more time forhis work.

"I don't think he'll be doing it again," hiswife said of his skydiving.

As is routine in the case of fatal crashes, theNational Transportation Safety Board will conductan investigation into the crash, Culver said.Findings should be made public within three to sixmonths.

This story was written with wire dispatchesfrom the Associated Press.

"All he keeps talking about is seeing thatplane coming at him," said Peters' wife, Joyce."He tried to get out of the way as best he could,but there wasn't much he could do and it hit hisankle"

The Piper's pilot, who was not required to filea flight plan, was flying under visual rules,Culver said. The Piper was flying about 15 milesnorth of a straight line between Boston andPoughkeepsie.

But it was not clear if the Piper's pilot wascomplying with flight rules by keeping his radiotuned for warnings as he entered the designatedjump zone, which extends three miles from theairport in all directions.

A management official at Northampton Airport,speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Piperdid not radio down to the airport to check for anypotential dangers, as some other pilots do."That's like driving through a shopping centerlike it's a highway," the official said.

"All can think of is the pilot may have beenoff course and did not know his location," saidDave Strickland, owner of the airport's sky-divingoperation Airborne Adventures. "We know he had amap out, because that was found in his lap at thecrash scene."

He said the jump zone was clearly marked on themap as an area to avoid. Also, the Piper's pilotapparently was not in radio contact with the localairport, and he wasn't listening to the frequencyon which the sky-diving pilot notified local airtraffic of the planned jump, Strickland said.

He said it appeared the plane came from behindand underneath his company's plane.

"The odds of a skydiver hitting an airplane areabout the same as a meteor hitting your car,"Strickland said. "We do 10,000 jumps a year...andwe've never had anybody come close to one of thejumpers in freefall before."

Strickland, who was one of five on the plane tojump after Peters, said he and the other jumperssaw nothing. But the plane's pilot saw the Pipercrash.

The pilot, who apparently had no idea the planehad collided with Peters, sent emergency radiomessages to the local airport and Bradley Field,then circled the crash site and guided emergencyvehicles by radio, Strickland said.

Peters, who was listed in stable condition atCooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, declinedto speak to reporters. But it seemed likely thatthe machine shop owner will now have more time forhis work.

"I don't think he'll be doing it again," hiswife said of his skydiving.

As is routine in the case of fatal crashes, theNational Transportation Safety Board will conductan investigation into the crash, Culver said.Findings should be made public within three to sixmonths.

This story was written with wire dispatchesfrom the Associated Press.