Canton of Lyon – A plane crash Saturday afternoon in Lyon township killed the former president of the Metro Detroit homebuilders group, his wife and son and caused a fire in the house they struck, according to the association of home builders.
Aircraft owner David S. Compo – an experienced and licensed pilot – his wife Michele and their son Dawson were killed in the crash when their private plane crashed into a house 800 meters north of the New Hudson Airport, the Home Builders Association. from southeastern Michigan said in a statement Saturday night.
David Compo had flown to Canton, Georgia on Dec. 29, and the family were returning home on Saturday when the accident occurred, the homebuilding group said.
The incident happened around 4 p.m. Saturday in the 57000 block of Dakota Drive, witnesses said. Residents of the house were able to exit the house, the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office said.
A single-engine Piper PA-24 Comanche crashed in a residential area at 3:47 p.m., about half a mile north of Oakland Southwest Airport in New Hudson, according to preliminary information from the Federal Aviation Administration.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will conduct an investigation.
According to FlightAware.com, the plane took off at 12:51 p.m. and was scheduled to land at 4:11 p.m.
According to the FAA registry, the aircraft is owned by Novi-based Aircom LLC. The company shares an address with Compo Builders, Inc., and both are registered with Compo, who is also president of Compo Builders. The aircraft was manufactured in 1964.
Campo is the past president of the Home Builders Association of Southeastern Michigan. His term ended on New Year’s Eve.
“We were fortunate to have David at the helm of our team for 2020,” said Michael Stoskopf, CEO of the Home Builders Association. “His dedication, professionalism and experience over the years have been great assets to our organization, and he has been a true friend to me as we have taken on challenge after challenge over the past year.
Firefighters from the canton of Lyon remained at the scene of the fire on Saturday evening. The tail of a small plane could be seen behind a blue tarp used to cover the fuselage.
The two-story house appeared to have sustained significant damage to the two-story side and back.
The weather at the time of the crash was unremarkable other than low cloud cover, according to the White Lake Township office of the National Weather Service. There was no rain, ice or snow and the temperatures were near freezing. The winds were calm to light from the east / southeast.
A meteorologist said that since the crash was investigated, there was no conclusion to be drawn on whether the weather conditions could have been a contributing factor.
Chase Southwick, who lives about a block from the scene, said he saw the plane before the crash. He thought it was a little weird to see the plane flying low, but he didn’t think much about it.
“You could tell it was really, really low because it was buzzing so low,” he said. Southwick said he later saw smoke billowing from a window.
“There was a huge cloud of white smoke, I thought about what had happened?” he said. “This plane, because it was so low, what if it crashes?”
Southwick said he passed after receiving an alert about the plane crash.
“You could see the whole plane, the whole front of the nose was crushed,” he said. “We were like ‘Oh my god. It could happen to us because we live on one street. What if this happens to us? ”
Victoria Bial and Jaye Sciullo were arriving to visit their brother for a holiday gathering on Saturday afternoon when they saw fire coming from her neighbor’s house.
They said they had no idea that a plane was involved.
“From a distance it looked like the house was on fire,” Sciullo said. “You couldn’t see much.”
“We are so happy that the family is out safely,” Bial said. “The kids, mother and father came out safe and sound. It’s horrible to start the new year like this. My heart is with them.”
