Official: Plane crash appeared to be suicide try

EAST HARTFORD, Conn. -- A flight instructor and a student pilot had an altercation inside the cockpit of a small plane, and the instructor was unable to regain control from the trainee before it crashed near the Connecticut headquarters of a military jet-engine manufacturer, killing the student, a U.S. official familiar with the investigation said Wednesday.

The crash appeared to have been a suicide attempt by the student, and terrorism was ruled out, the official said.

The official, who wasn't authorized to speak publicly, spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Piper PA-34 Seneca crashed with the two men aboard during a training flight Tuesday in East Hartford near the headquarters of Pratt & Whitney while returning to Brainard Airport in Hartford, authorities said.

The flight instructor was burned badly but survived.

The instructor described the student pilot as disgruntled about learning to be a pilot, the U.S. official said.

The flight instructor is Arian Prevalla, 43, and the student was Feras Freitekh, said a law-enforcement official, who wasn't authorized to disclose the information and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Prevalla's social media pages indicate he is president of the American Flight Academy and a managing member of the Hartford Jet Center, based in Hartford.

The pages say he originally is from Albania and lives in Hartford.

On LinkedIn, Prevalla said he received a bachelor's degree in Aviation Science from Mountain State University, a now-defunct university in Beckley, West Virginia.

Freitekh had lived in the Chicago suburb of Orland Hills, Illinois, since 2013 and received a private pilot certificate last year from the Federal Aviation Administration, according to public records.

Safety officials said Wednesday the FBI was taking over as lead investigator of the crash because of indications it was an intentional act.

The National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday its initial investigation indicated the wreck was deliberate.

An agency spokesman, Terry Williams, said he couldn't elaborate on the basis of that finding.

The survivor told police detectives it was not an accident, according to East Hartford Mayor Marcia Leclerc.

Authorities said the student and instructor were about to land at Brainard Airport in Hartford when the plane struck a utility pole and crashed onto the road about 4 p.m. Tuesday, bursting into flames.