OXFORD, Conn. -- A 50-year-old man from Maryland was killed when a small airplane crashed into a power substation near the Waterbury-Oxford Airport on Wednesday afternoon.
State Police identified the man as John Foster, 50, of Bethesda, Md. He was flying a low-wing Cessna and they believe he overshot the runway and crashed into the substation on Christian Street just before 5:30 p.m. Officials with the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are trying to determine the cause.
Airport officials said they lost contact with the plane during its final approach. It broke into pieces, scattering debris in the area.
Foster, the only person on board, was pulled from the wreckage and taken to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The crash damaged a power line and tower leading to the substation. A spokesman for Connecticut Light & Power said that at one point, 5,800 customers in Southbury, Middlebury, Oxford and Waterbury did not have power.
The airport's operations office was not affected.
