Husband and wife dead following small plane crash in Woburn

WOBURN, Mass. - Officials have confirmed two people are dead following a small plane crash in Woburn on Saturday morning.

The single engine Columbia Aircraft LC41 crashed Saturday at around 11 a.m. in a residential neighborhood in Woburn.

The victims of the crash have been identified by Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan as "very experienced" pilot Dr. Michael Graver and his wife, Jodi Cohen.

"There was stuff exploding, and there was debris all over the street," Woburn resident Julianne Almeida said. "A huge billow of smoke just so high up in the sky, and flames and it just shook the whole neighborhood."

Almeida, a veteran ER nurse, heard the plane go down, and ran to help.

"Just yelling, 'Can anybody hear me? If you're alive, can you hear me?'" Almeida said.

In a statement, Dr. Alan Hartman of Northwell Health, where Graver was chief of cardiac surgery, had nothing but praise for the victim's work.

"Mike was an outstanding surgeon and a great guy," Hartman said.

According to the FAA, the plane crashed in a wooded area four miles from Hanscom Field in Bedford, MA.

Ryan said the couple departed from Republic Airport in Farmingdale, New York, at around 9:30 a.m. and had been heading to Laurence G. Hanscom Field in Bedford, Massachusetts.

The Middlesex DA's office and State Police troopers in Medford and Danvers are assisting in responding to the plane crash on Henderson Road.

Woburn Mayor Scott Galvin says the plane fortunately did not hit any homes or injure anyone on the ground.

"We hear it, and you always worry about it, and now it happened," Marc Almeida said. "We're just very thankful it didn't affect any houses or any of the immediate neighbors."

The National Transportation Safety Board and other agencies are investigating.

Cox Media Group