AMHERST, N.H. — A single-engine plane that appeared to have been deliberately crashed into an upscale home was licensed by the homeowner's company. The pilot, the plane's only occupant, was killed.
The home, unoccupied at the time of the Saturday morning crash, was destroyed by impact and fire. No one on the ground was injured.
Authorities said the pilot's body will not be identified until at least Tuesday. One investigator confirmed accounts by neighbors that the crash appeared deliberate.
The plane was registered to a company founded by Louis W. Joy III, 43, an author, lecturer and licensed pilot who had recently moved to the home with his wife, Jo, and their 8-year-old daughter.
No one was home about 7:40 a.m. Saturday when the small plane went silent before plowing into the house, set back from the road down a winding, tree-lined, quarter-mile driveway.
The Joys moved to Amherst from Newark, Del., where Louis Joy's company, Manufacturing Excellence Inc., is based. He had been president since 1987 and lectured on motivation and management. The company's Web site lists Fortune 500 companies as clients.
Neighbor Anthony Wesley heard the plane cruising the area, then saw a flash from his garage.
"I saw a big cloud of smoke and a sound like an explosion," he said. "When I got to the house, it was totally in flames. It was a total inferno."
Donald Bliss, the state fire marshal, said the plane had struck the house with tremendous force.
"The impact alone would have caused substantial damage along with the fuel that would have ignited the fire. A plane like that would have quite a bit of highly flammable fuel," Bliss said.
About 20 minutes before the crash, the plane had taken off from Nashua Municipal Airport about 12 miles away, said Jim Peters, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration. He said the pilot had filed an instrument flight plan with a destination of Atlantic City, N.J., but never activated it.
Marie Seroskie, a neighbor, said the plane made several passes overhead before crashing. She and others said the plane did not seem to have trouble before the crash.
"I kept hearing a plane going around and around," she said. "I thought he was buzzing someone. I saw him from the bedroom window and I waved at him and then the engine went completely dead."