Two men killed as single-engine plane goes down in Arundel, Maine

Two men were killed when their single-engine plane crashed in the woods in Arundel, Maine, on Wednesday, officials said.

The Beechcraft A36 was heading from Presque Isle, Maine, to Biddeford Municipal Airport when it went down at about 1:55 p.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.

The pilot was identified as 81-year-old Eldon Morrison of Yarmouth, Maine, and the passenger as 55-year-old Paul Koziell of Scarborough, Maine, the York County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement late Wednesday night.

Both men were killed upon impact, the sheriff’s department said.

The men were returning to Biddeford after flying to Presque Isle on Wednesday morning. They began the flight back to Biddeford a little after noon, the department said.

Arundel is just south of Biddeford and about 20 miles south of Portland. The plane crashed in the woods just north of Sam’s Road near Route 1 (Portland Road) in Arundel, the sheriff’s department said.

“When we got on scene we did see some smoke in the woods so we further investigated and ended up finding a plane crash,” Arundel Fire Department Captain Nathan Howe told reporters, according to video from News Center Maine.

Firefighters from Arundel and Kennebunk, Maine, and York County fire and medical personnel responded to the scene, the sheriff’s department said.

The crash is under investigation by the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board.

The FAA said it will release the aircraft’s registration number once it has been verified.

The NTSB said it was sending two investigators to the site on Wednesday.