Married Couple Killed in Monday Morning Plane Crash Identified

A married Rhode Island couple were killed Monday morning when their plane crashed alongside a Massachusetts highway.

Thomas Perkins, 68, and his wife, Agatha Perkins, 66, of Middletown, Rhode Island were found dead after their plane crashed along Interstate 195 in Dartmouth, Massachusetts at around 8:15 a.m. Monday. Police who responded to the accident found the plane in the woods on the westbound side of the highway near Reed Road, according to Boston25 News.

Thomas and Agatha Perkins were found dead in the aircraft's fuselage. A third person, a woman who was driving on the highway, was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The plane, a fixed-wing single-engine SOCATA TBM 700, was registered to the Air Charity Network, per Flight Aware. Witnesses said the aircraft burst into flames upon impact.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the flight was bound for Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Mystery surrounds doomed plane

What makes the tragic deaths of this couple even more confusing is the lack of details surrounding their trip.

“The plane may have been attempting to land at New Bedford Regional Airport, though it does not appear that the pilot provided the airport with a flight plan or the number of souls aboard the aircraft,” Massachusetts State Police said in a statement, via the New York Post.

The Air Charity Network is an organization based in Middletown that provides free aircraft services to "specialized health care facilities or distant destinations due to family, community, or national crisis," according to its official website. The network, which serves all 50 states and is comprised of various regional organizations, uses volunteer pilots.

However, according to the Journal Sentinel, neither Angel Flight Northeast, which serves Massachusetts, nor Angel Flight Central, which provides for the people of Wisconsin, took responsibility for the plane, saying it was not registered for any of their flights.

"We are all checking with each other to see which public benefit flying organization the pilot was volunteering for, and that has yet to be determined," Angel Flight Central CEO Brendan Sneegas told the Journal Sentinel.

An investigation into the crash remains ongoing.