The two victims in last Thursday’s fatal plane crash in Bucks County at Victoria and Brittany lanes in Hilltown Township have been identified as 74-year-old Alfred George Piranian, of Chalfont, and 55-year-old Brian Filippini, of Philadelphia, per reports. Both men died on impact, police said, and both deaths were ruled accidental.
Piranian was a flight instructor and Filippini was the owner of the 1965 Beechcraft 35-C33, according to the Bucks County Courier Times. Filippini was flying the plane, according to Coroner Meredith Buck.
Filippini served as president of Concord Management Group International, a life science, healthcare, and technology recruiting and consulting firm, since 1997, according to LinkedIn. Filippini graduated from Ohio State University in 1989, where he was on the track team. He ran Concord alongside his wife Leigh, who serves as principal and co-founder and was also an Ohio State University graduate.
According to reports, a National Transportation Safety Board investigator said the plane was a commercial instructional flight with one person on board training for their commercial pilot’s license.
The Beechcraft took off from Doylestown Airport and was destined to land at a small, rarely used, private, permission-required-to-land airstrip called Gunden Airport, south of the neighborhood where it crash landed around 5 p.m. Thursday. The Gunden Airstrip owner, James M. Gunden, of Schultz Road in Sellersville, did not know of the plane’s arrival, which “a handful of planes” have used in the past 20 years. The airport opened in July 1985.
Hilltown Township Police Chief Christopher Englehart called Filippini a hero for avoiding homes and nearby Pennridge Central Middle School. A propellor ended up going through the wall of a nearby home and lodging itself in a second-floor bedroom, narrowly missing a crib.
There were no other injuries in the crash.
Police were dispatched to the intersection and found a single-engine plane burst into flame upon impact and caused an exterminator business vehicle parked nearby to catch fire, police said. The house sustained damage from part of the propellor penetrating through the bedroom wall, police said.
Witnesses reported seeing and hearing the plane struggle to remain airborne, police said. Several home security cameras captured footage of the crash, police said.
Hilltown Police were assisted at the scene by Bedminster Township Police, Dublin Borough Police, Silverdale Fire Company, Hilltown Fire Company, Perkasie Fire Company, Telford Fire Company, Fire Police from numerous fire companies, Central Bucks EMS, Bucks County Coroner’s Office and the Federal Aviation Administration.
Wreckage was removed over the weekend by the NTSB, which is investigating the cause of the crash.
Anyone that witnessed or has video of the plane is encouraged to contact Hilltown Police at 215-453-6011. In addition, anyone that locates any part of the plane is directed to call police.
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