Officials identify men killed in Keene plane crash Friday

Oct. 24—Officials on Monday released the names of the two men killed in Friday night's plane crash in Keene, as the Red Cross continued to assist those displaced from apartments at the site. The residential property's owner, meanwhile, said it could take a year to salvage and repair it.

Lawrence Marchiony, 41, of Baldwinville, Mass., and Marvin David Dezendorf, 60, of Townshend, Vt., died in the crash, according to a news release Monday from Keene police. They were aboard a single-engine aircraft that hit a shed attached to a multifamily apartment building on Lower Main Street shortly before 7 p.m.

Both men were pilot-rated, said Tim Monville, senior air-safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, at a news conference Sunday at the crash site.

The plane departed from Keene's Dillant-Hopkins Airport in North Swanzey, although officials have not specified where it was heading. Airport Director David Hickling said in a news conference at the airport Saturday that the plane was traveling north directly on the extended centerline of the airport's primary runway before crashing. The NTSB continues to investigate and has not yet offered a possible cause.

Dezendorf's LinkedIn page lists him as a flight instructor at Monadnock Aviation, a flight school and aviation business based out of Dillant-Hopkins Airport that Keene Mayor George Hansel said owned the four-seater Beechcraft Sierra aircraft. A 2017 Monadnock Aviation newsletter says Marchiony trained with Dezendorf and had aspirations of becoming a flight instructor.

People at the Monadnock Aviation office at Dillant-Hopkins on Monday declined to comment, and Beth Bendel, the company's president and one of its founders, could not be reached by phone that afternoon.

The plane crash sparked a fire in the building it hit that was quickly raised to three alarms and was extinguished at 8:47 p.m., but no tenants were hurt, according to Keene Fire Chief Donald Farquhar.

Nine adults sought assistance from the American Red Cross, and seven Red Cross volunteers have helped provide relief, according to Jennifer Costa, regional communications director for the nonprofit's Northern New England Region.

"For those nine adults, we've provided financial systems for their recovery, comfort kits that have all those toiletries you don't think about when you have to leave your home quickly, recovery information [and Friday] night, blankets, water and food for all those who have been displaced," Costa said. "Additionally, we provide disaster health services ... very dependent on the needs of each individual."

Wayne Brown, who owns the property, along with W.E. Brown Roofing in Keene, said in a phone interview Monday that the condition of the two-story shed, called the barn, that was hit is "not good" and that much of the attached four-family apartment building outside the direct impact zone also shows residual damage.

"If you were on scene, you could see the smoke was just billowing out the front," Brown said.

He said he and others worked all day Saturday and on Sunday morning to remove parts of the plane that remained in the structure, including the engine and fragments of the fuselage and tail. He said he expects the city to fully turn his property back over to him Tuesday.

"When [aviation] fuel burns, it burns at a very high temperature, and there wasn't much left of the aircraft," Brown said. "I had snowblowers and lawnmowers in the barn, but everything's just melted into a puddle."

He didn't have an assessment on the value of the damage yet but said he'll be working with his property insurer and claims adjusters in the recovery of the building.

"I've got to send prayers out to the families of the lost souls that perished in the fire, and I'm very sad for Beth [Bendel] at Monadnock Aviation," Brown said.

He said he bought the property from a friend about 25 years ago and has rented it to families throughout that time. He said the property is one of the oldest farmhouses on Main Street and that the shed destroyed in the crash was built in the 1830s. He doubts it can be rebuilt to its original condition.

"With the city of Keene's code restrictions, the barn wouldn't be able to be built back the way it was," Brown said. "All bets are on how the insurance company looks at it, but it may be totaled; it's pretty definitive and it's damn close."

The shed was once used to house sheep, he said, and the animal stalls had remained intact until they burned in Friday's plane crash.

Brown said more than 200 people around the community and region have reached out to offer him assistance, and that he's shared resources with his displaced tenants.

Among those who have volunteered with the Red Cross is Norm Gentry, 72, of Manchester, who works with the organization's Disaster Action Team for Merrimack Valley.

"We really didn't know what we were going to see when we got there, because it could have gone in so many directions," Gentry said Monday. "It was unfortunate that two people lost their lives but very fortunate that it wasn't more than that."

The gravity of the situation didn't hit Gentry until he arrived at the scene Friday night. He said the Hope Chapel next door was hosting a youth group with 30 children present at the time of impact, with the plane "miss[ing] them by like 30 feet."

The suddenness of the crash left apartment tenants in a state of shock, Gentry said, with people emerging from the building in their pajamas.

He provided initial support to get them through the weekend by arranging for short-term housing, bringing needed supplies from Manchester and taking down their information so other volunteers could help in the coming days.

"I've worked on some very large situations [like] large apartment fires," Gentry said. "We had one in Manchester I worked where we had 48 individuals across 11 families. I'm just so glad this wasn't any larger than it was."

Trisha Nail can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1436, or tnail@keenesentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter @byTrishaNail.