Neighbor recounts Aurora plane crash aftermath

AURORA, N.Y. (WIVB) -- Investigators are working to figure out how a single-engine plane fell from the sky, killing its pilot.

The aircraft came down around 11:30 a.m. Thursday in the Town of Aurora. Minutes before, Michael Lester was inside his nearby home when he heard a loud noise. That's when he looked out his back window to see billowing black smoke and dialed 9-1-1.

"It looked like it was coming from above my neighbor's house," Lester said. "So I had run across the street and I was kind of pounding on the door just kind of worried what was going on with them. And a car had pulled up -- it was two older guys and they said they had just watched a plane go down."

That single-engine plane crashed in between two homes. Lester said he had no choice but to wait for first responders because of the intense flames.

"It really wasn't until I went around the shed and (saw) the tail of a plane that I had any idea," Lester said.

East Aurora Police confirmed the only pilot of that single-engine plane died in the crash. Authorities told WIVB News 4 the pilot alerted the Buffalo Airport to a mechanical problem shortly before crashing.

The identity of the pilot remains unknown. News 4 was told that the flight was traveling to White Planes, N.Y. from Lansing, Mich.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents responded to the scene in a helicopter, and agents were on patrol when airport air traffic controllers asked them to respond to the scene. NTSB investigators are working to figure out what went wrong.