Plane Out Of Gas When It Hit Ground Hole In Muffler May Have Let Fumes Knock Out Mother, Son

Investigators searching the wreckage of a small plane on a wooded hillside in New Hampshire said Saturday that it had crashed on Friday when it apparently ran out of gas after cruising over three states on automatic pilot, and that its occupants - a Long Island pilot and his 71-year-old mother - had apparently been overcome and perhaps killed by carbon monoxide fumes 90 minutes before the final plunge.

The federal and state investigators confirmed that David Riach, 46, of Babylon, N.Y., and his mother, Dorothy Riach, of Morristown, N.J., had been found dead at the crash scene a half-mile south of Lake Winnipesaukee, near Alton, N.H.

Hampered by howling winds and subzero temperatures, investigators found the cockpit of the single-engine, four-seat Piper Dakota badly mangled and the victims nearby, still strapped in seats that had been hurled from the plane on impact.

The investigators also found scattered pieces of the plane that had broken off as it plowed through evergreen trees and slammed into a hillside.

But the gas tank was found intact and empty, officials said.

Ed Stead, owner of Stead Aviation and a pilot with three decades of experience, suspected a hole in the muffler caused exhaust fumes to enter the cabin.

The plane’s heating system pulls cold air in, passes it over the hot muffler, then moves the warmed air into the cabin.

Riach had flown his own small plane for a decade, and his mother obtained a flying license at the age of 65 and had limited experience in the cockpit as a member of a women’s flying club in New Jersey.