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Report: Pilot in Chesco crash had not flown since 2011

The pilot flying an airplane that crashed March 29 in Chester County had not flown since 2011, according to a preliminary report released Monday by the National Transportation Safety Board.

The pilot flying an airplane that crashed March 29 in Chester County had not flown since 2011, according to a preliminary report released Monday by the National Transportation Safety Board.

The report - which officials said is subject to change - illustrates through eyewitness accounts what happened in the few seconds that certified pilots Joseph Deal, 64, and Richard Poch, 67, were in the air before their small plane crashed into a backyard in West Goshen Township. Both men were killed in the crash.

The report also gives the first official identification of the plane: A Piper PA-28-140, registered to Deal, of Drexel Hill, who was flying it at the time of the crash. It was a single-engine fixed-wing plane with four seats, records show.

The report does not, however, reveal what caused the crash. Federal officials still are investigating who maintained the plane last, and are inspecting the fuel-supply system.

Ed Rillstone of London Grove Township said he was driving along Route 202 when he saw the plane take off. Within seconds, he said, the plane hurtled into the ground.

"It was flying so low and wobbly that it reminded me of a crop duster," Rillstone said.

Rillstone, along with other eyewitnesses in the Monday report, said that the plane never climbed above 200 feet and that as it lost control, its wings turned to vertical to the ground.

The accident occurred during a routine flight review conducted every two years to test a pilot's proficiency. Poch, a flight instructor from West Chester certified by the Federal Aviation Administration, was evaluating Deal at the time of the crash.