Pilot Bill Henningsgaard survived a plane crash over the Washington coast three years before Friday's tragedy. Jonathan Vigliotti reports (Published Saturday, Aug. 10, 2013) 
 
 The plane accident that killed four people in a Connecticut neighborhood was not the first crash for the pilot, a former Microsoft executive who was taking his teenage son on a tour of East Coast colleges. 
 
 The pilot, Bill Henningsgaard, was killed along with his son, Maxwell, and two children who were in a house struck by the small propeller-driven plane on Friday. Their bodies were all recovered from the crash scene. 
 
 Pilot In Deadly Conn. Wreck Did Not Declare Emergency: NTSB 
 
 The pilot in an accident that killed four people in East Haven, Connecticut, did not declare emergency before the crash, NTSB officials said Saturday afternoon. Brian Thompson reports. (Published Sunday, Aug. 11, 2013) 
 
 East Haven police on Saturday released the names of the crash victims, including Henningsgaard, 54, of Medina, Wash.; his 17-year-old son; 13-year-old Sade Brantley and 1-year-old Madisyn Mitchell, who lived in the East Haven home hit by the plane. 
 
 National Transportation Safety Board investigator Patrick Murray said Saturday the plane was upside down when it struck a house at about a 60 degree angle. He said the pilot was making his first approach to the airport and did not declare an emergency before the crash. 
 
 Kids Killed in Plane Crash Mourned at Vigil 
 
 A Connecticut community came together to remember the two youngest victims of a plane crash in East Haven. A 13-year-old girl and her 1-year-old sister died when a plane crashed into their home Friday. Brian Thompson reports. (Published Monday, Aug. 12, 2013) 
 
 After removing the wreckage and before analyzing any data, he said at a news conference in New Haven, "We don't have any indication there was anything wrong with the plane." 
 
 A preliminary NTSB report on the crash is expected within 10 business days. A more in-depth report could take up to nine months. 
 
 On Saturday night, dozens of people turned out for a vigil at Margaret Tucker Park to honor those who died in the crash. Among those in attendance was the woman who lost two children when the plane struck their house. 
 
 Mayor Joseph Maturo told the crowd at the vigil that the show of support was a great tribute. 
 
 "I think this is a great tribute to a great town," the mayor said, "a caring town, a loving town. A town that comes out when things are down and people need you." 
 
 Gov. Dannel Malloy said in a statement that the vigil was a "profound statement of the ties that bind East Haven and our entire state together as one community." 
 
 "When a family suffers an unimaginable tragedy, we come together and pray that they have the strength they need to carry on," Malloy said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with all the families tonight who are suffering from grief and loss." 
 
 Henningsgaard, a highly regarded philanthropist, was flying a small plane to Seattle in 2009 with his mother when the engine quit. He crash-landed on Washington's Columbia River. 
 
 "I forced myself to confront that fact that the situation any pilot fears — a mid-air emergency, was happening right then, with my mother in the plane," he wrote in a blog post days later. 
 
 In the Connecticut crash, Henningsgaard was bringing the 10-seater plane, a Rockwell International Turbo Commander 690B, in for a landing at Tweed New Haven Airport in rainy weather just before noon when the plane struck two small homes, engulfing them in flames. The aircraft's left wing lodged in one house and its right wing in the other. 
 
 As the children's mother yelled for help from the front lawn, several people in the working-class neighborhood raced to rescue the children, but they were forced to turn back by the fire. 
 
 A neighbor, David Esposito, was among those who raced to help the children's mother. He said he ran into the upstairs of the house, where the woman believed her children were, but he couldn't find them after frantically searching a crib and closets. He returned downstairs to search some more, but he dragged the woman out when the flames became too strong. 
 
 The pilot's family had learned it was Bill Henningsgaard's plane through the tail number, said his brother, Blair Henninsgaard, the city attorney in Astoria, Ore. 
 
 In 2009, Bill Henningsgaard was flying from Astoria, Ore. with his 84-year-old mother to watch his daughter in a high school play when he crashed into the river as he tried to glide back to the airport. He and his mother, a former Astoria mayor, climbed out on a wing and were rescued. 
 
 Henningsgaard was a member of Seattle-based Social Venture Partners, a foundation that helps build up communities. The foundation extended its condolences to his wife and two daughters. 
 
 "There are hundreds of people that have a story about Bill — when he went the extra mile, when he knew just the right thing to say, how he would never give up. He was truly all-in for this community, heart, mind and soul," the foundation wrote Friday in a post on its website. 
 
 Paul Shoemaker of Social Venture Partners told The Seattle Times that Henningsgaard was "an incredibly good, real, honest man, for the community, for his family, for this world." 
 
 "The guy has already done so much for the world. And he was going to do so much more," he said. 
 
 Henningsgaard spent 14 years at Microsoft in various marketing and sales positions, according to his biography on Social Venture Partners website. He was a longtime board member at Youth Eastside Services, a Bellevue, Wash.-based agency that provides counseling and substance-abuse treatment, and led the organization's $10.7 million fundraising campaign for its new headquarters, which opened in 2008. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers Steven DuBois in Portland, Ore., Gene Johnson in Seattle and John Christoffersen in East Haven, Conn., contributed to this report. 
 
 Copyright Associated Press ||||| EAST HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Authorities are making plans to demolish the two East Haven houses struck by an airplane Friday in a crash that claimed four lives. 
 
 The Connecticut Post reports the demolition will take place this week. 
 
 The houses were badly damaged when the 10-seat propeller-driven plane crashed on its approach to Tweed New Haven Airport. 
 
 Thirteen-year-old-old Sade Brantley and 1-year-old Madisyn Mitchell were killed when the plane hit their home, setting it on fire. 
 
 Also killed were the pilot, 54-year-old former Microsoft executive Bill Henningsgaard, and his 17-year-old son, Maxwell. 
 
 Officials have said emergency repairs were done after the crash to make the homes safe for the crews that recovered the bodies. 
 
 On Saturday night, dozens of people turned out for a vigil at Margaret Tucker Park to honor those who died in the crash. 
 
 Among those in attendance was 39-year-old Joann Mitchell, the mother of the 13-year-old and the 1-year-old. Mitchell, who did not speak at the vigil, was home at the time of the crash, but managed to escape. 
 
 The Hartford Courant reported that Mitchell posted the following message on her Facebook page: ""My heart is at a standstill. The feeling of emptiness engulfs me. Mommy will always love you … R.I.P. my sweet angels." 
 
 East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo told the crowd at the vigil that the show of support was a great tribute. 
 
 "I think this is a great tribute to a great town," the mayor said, "a caring town, a loving town. A town that comes out when things are down and people need you." 
 
 Gov. Dannel Malloy said in a statement that the vigil was a "profound statement of the ties that bind East Haven and our entire state together as one community." 
 
 "When a family suffers an unimaginable tragedy, we come together and pray that they have the strength they need to carry on," Malloy said. 
 
 "Our thoughts and prayers are with all the families tonight who are suffering from grief and loss." ||||| Originally published August 9, 2013 at 9:56 PM | Page modified August 13, 2013 at 1:56 PM 
 
 Former Microsoft Vice President Bill Henningsgaard was killed along with his son in a plane crash in New Haven, Conn., while the two were visiting colleges on the East Coast. 
 
 Former Microsoft Vice President Bill Henningsgaard, of Medina, was killed Friday along with his son when the plane they were flying crashed into two houses in a neighborhood in East Haven, Conn. 
 
 Two children were believed killed on the ground, according to Connecticut authorities. 
 
 Henningsgaard’s death was first reported by The Daily Astorian newspaper in the coastal Oregon town where he grew up, followed by a notice posted by Social Venture Partners, a Seattle foundation he formerly served as chairman, on its website. Officials had not yet confirmed the names of the victims as of late Friday. 
 
 Henningsgaard’s brother, Astoria City Attorney Blair Henningsgaard, said he hadn’t received official confirmation, but told The Seattle Times he suspected his brother and nephew were aboard the plane. 
 
 The father and his son — identified by Social Venture Partners as Max — were on the East Coast visiting colleges, according to the agency. Connecticut officials said Henningsgaard was set to land at Tweed-New Haven Airport, but missed the approach and attempted a second approach, The Hartford Courant reported. They said there was no distress call from the plane, which the Federal Aviation Administration said was a Rockwell International Turbo Commander 690B, a multi-engine turboprop aircraft. 
 
 The bodies of the pilot and a child were found in the rubble, but East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo told reporters that the houses struck by the plane were unstable and crews were unable to get inside to do a full search. They were waiting for the National Transportation Safety Board to arrive before continuing the investigation. 
 
 Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy said Friday that two children, ages 1 and 13, were in one house and as many as three people might have been in the plane, The Courant reported. 
 
 “We presume there is going to be a very bad outcome,” East Haven Fire Chief Douglas Jackson said. 
 
 Bill Henningsgaard is listed as the registered agent of Ellumax Leasing in Medina, according to the Washington Secretary of State’s Office corporations website. Ellumax is the registered owner of the plane that crashed, FAA records show. 
 
 Henningsgaard was involved in a previous plane crash. In April 2009, his engine cut out 10 minutes into a flight from Astoria to Seattle with his mother, Edith Henningsgaard-Miller, a former Astoria mayor. The plane crash-landed into the Columbia River. 
 
 Standing on the wing of the plane as it sunk into the water, they were rescued by the Columbia River Bar Pilots. Henningsgaard wrote about the experience in a column on the Social Venture Partners website, urging people to reach out to children in the community. 
 
 He worked for about 14 years at Microsoft in various sales and marketing roles, including as vice president of sales for the Western U.S., Australia and New Zealand. 
 
 After leaving Microsoft, he became heavily involved in local social-service and philanthropy efforts, helping start Eastside Pathways, which works to support the area’s youth from “cradle to career.” He has also served as board member and past board chairman of both Youth Eastside Services and Social Venture Partners, which connects philanthropists and strengthens nonprofits. 
 
 Will Poole, former senior vice president of Microsoft’s Windows Client Business, said he and Henningsgaard were acquainted at Microsoft, but it was through Social Venture Partners that they and their families became good friends. 
 
 Henningsgaard, “like many of us, saw that we have the sort of business skills that are applicable to working in the nonprofit world and (that we could) help apply the best of what we learned at a company like Microsoft to help these organizations grow and thrive,” Poole said. “He was an effective and truly engaged philanthropist.” 
 
 Poole’s wife, Janet Levinger, a founding member and treasurer of Eastside Pathways, said Henningsgaard was “full of energy and really wanted to make a difference in the world. ... He walked his talk and took action.” 
 
 Jeff Raikes, CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, was Henningsgaard’s boss at Microsoft when Henningsgaard served as vice president of worldwide licensing and pricing. 
 
 “Bill was a great thinker,” Raikes said. “If you had a tough, strategic challenge to take on, he’d be the sort of person you’d want to partner with.” 
 
 Raikes watched as Henningsgaard and his wife became more involved in philanthropy over the years, especially with groups providing opportunities for young people locally. 
 
 “He was a great leader at Microsoft,” Raikes said. “But I think, even more so, a greater leader in our community.” 
 
 Paul Shoemaker, Social Venture Partners executive connector, called him “an incredibly good, real, honest man, for the community, for his family, for this world.” 
 
 “The guy has already done so much for the world. And he was going to do so much more,” he said. 
 
 The post on the Social Ventures Partners website said the family is requesting donations to Eastside Pathways partners on behalf of Henningsgaard and to Camp Kiwanilong, in Warrenton, Ore., on behalf of his son, who spent several summers there. 
 
 “We know you will join the SVP Board and Staff in extending deepest condolences to Bill’s wife and daughters and Max’s mom and sisters, Susan Sullivan, Eleanor and Lucy,” the post said. “They are in our thoughts and hearts.” 
 
 Colin Campbell: 206-464-2033 or ccampbell@seattletimes.com. On Twitter, @cmcampbell6 
 
 Seattle Times staff reporter Steve Miletich contributed to this report. Information from The Associated Press is included.
– It could be months before a full investigation of Friday's propeller plane crash in East Haven, Conn., is completed. In the meantime, the identities of the victims have been officially confirmed as Bill Henningsgaard, 54, a former Microsoft VP; his 17-year-old son, Maxwell; and two children in the house the plane hit, Sade Brantley, 13, and Madisyn Mitchell, 1. The town held a vigil for the victims on Saturday, NBC New York reports. Pilot Henningsgaard didn't declare an emergency prior to the crash, says a National Transportation Safety Board investigator; there is no evidence thus far that there was "anything wrong with the plane," he notes. It was Heningsgaard's first approach to Tweed-New Haven Airport, the investigator says, though other reports have described it as his second approach. Henningsgaard was a noted philanthropist, NBC adds; he was named as one of 2013's Superheroes for Washington Families by parenting organization ParentMap, the Daily Astorian reports. He had previously survived a 2009 plane accident.