Maryland State Police and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating an airplane crash in a field near the Choptank River in Talbot County that has left at least one person dead.          

Shortly before 10:00 a.m., Wednesday morning, troopers from the Easton Barrack responded to the report of a plane crash in southern Talbot County.  Troopers located the wreckage in a field east of Route 50 near the intersection of Buck Bryan Road.  The airplane, later determined to be a Piper PA-30 ‘Twin Comanche’ twin engine fixed wing aircraft, was found in an open field and the plane did not strike any dwellings or structures on the ground.  There were no reports of fire and no one aboard the aircraft is believed to have survived the crash.

Preliminary information developed by the troopers indicates that at approximately 9:50 a.m., personnel from the radar tracking station at the Patuxent Naval Air Station advised the Dorchester County 9-1-1 center that it had lost radar contact with the airplane somewhere near the Choptank River.  Police and emergency personnel from Dorchester and Talbot Counties, as well as the United States Coast Guard searched for the aircraft.

Troopers from the Easton Barrack located the crash scene at shortly after 10:30 a.m. The search was hampered by severe thunderstorms that were in the area at the time of the crash.  Due to the extensive damage to the fuselage, investigators have not determined the number of people aboard the aircraft when it went down.

Maryland State Police crime scene technicians assisted investigators by processing the crash site in an attempt to recover physical evidence from in and around the scene.  Troopers were assisted by the Dorchester and Talbot County Sheriffs  Department, as well as the Trappe and Easton Volunteer Fire Departments.

The bodies will be transported to the Office of the State’s Medical Examiner in Baltimore for autopsies.  Investigators advised that the identities of the victims will not be available today. Positive identifications will be made through the medical examiners office.  The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the incident in an attempt to determine the cause of the crash. 

The investigation is continuing...