By MARK BOWES, LUZ LAZO AND JUAN ANTONIO LIZAMA
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITERS
 
Authorities this afternoon identified the pilot and passenger who died yesterday when a plane crashed into a house in Chesterfield County.
 
The pilot was Joseph Anthony Grana Jr. 40, Florham Park, N.J. The passenger was his father, Joseph Anthony Grana Sr., 73, of Richmond.
 
In a news conference this afternoon, Virginia State Police Sgt. Tom Cunningham said the son, an experienced pilot, had flown to Richmond Friday from the Essex, N.J., airport to attend a family event. Yesterday the father and son were planning to do some touch-and-go landings at an airport in Franklin.
 
Melissa Bowen, 22, was in the house that was hit by the plane. She made it out of the house but suffered life-threatening burns and was taken to VCU Medical Center.  
 
Cunningham said Grana family members issued a statement that said the "family's thoughts and prayers are with the family of the burn victim...."
 
This afternoon, investigators were recovering the bodies of Grana Jr. and Grana Sr.
Officials from the Federal Aviation Administration are now trying to determine what caused the plane to crash shortly after takeoff from the Chesterfield County Airport about 5 miles away from the house.

The crash engulfed the house in flames but spared neighboring residences in the 3100 block of Woodsong Drive, about a half-mile from the intersection of Hull Street and Genito roads. Debris was strewn through the area.

No new information was available today on Bowen's condition. She was listed yesterday in critical condition. A hospital spokeswoman said the family requested that no additional information be released.

Police were posted through the night to protect the scene and evidence. The plane, a Mooney Model M20M fixed-wing, single-engine aircraft built in 2000, is registered to RKJ Aero LLC in Wilmington, Del.

The crash occurred at 10:19 a.m. There may have been low clouds in the area during that time, but officials would not say if weather conditions played a role in the wreck.

Bowen's sister, Christine Bowen, owns the home. But police did not know whether Melissa Bowen lived with her sister or was visiting. Christine Bowen left the home before the crash and returned shortly afterward to find her sister injured and the one-story home in flames.

Peter Heimsath, who lives across the street, said he received a terrified call from his stepdaughter, Nancy Plucinik, and raced home from church with his wife and stepson.

"As we came down Hull, we saw off to the left, above the trees, it looked like about a 100-foot plume of black smoke," he said.

"The intensity level [of the flames], you can feel it across the street," he said. "It was massive. The entire house was just engulfed in a sea of red."

Plucinik was in front of the mirror in her room getting ready for church when she heard something that sounded like a drag-racing noise and then the explosion.

"The [window] blinds blew back," she said. "I thought something was going to happen to our house."

Plucinik frantically began calling her sister and stepfather and went outside, where a man was helping the injured woman and other people were on their cell phones calling people and taking pictures.

"I thought my life was in danger," she said. "I'm glad that it didn't hit me. But at the same time, I'm sorry for her."

Chesterfield Fire and Emergency Medical Services Battalion Chief Robert Lukhard said that when fire crews arrived at the scene, the house was ablaze and Bowen was at a sidewalk, where she was being assisted by neighbors.

Bill Sammler, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said weather conditions in the area indicate that at the time of the crash, visibility may have been somewhere between 4 and 5 miles, which is considered good.

But the cloud base could have been very low, at 500 feet, Sammler said.

The low ceiling may have resulted in instrument flight rules being in effect, which require special pilot qualifications, he said. But the weather service does not have an observation station at the Chesterfield Airport, he said, and his estimate came from comparing conditions at Richmond International Airport and at Petersburg's airport.

The conditions "could have been slightly different in Chesterfield," Sammler said.

FAA and airport officials who could comment on the flight conditions could not immediately be reached. Cunningham said he could not answer questions on those elements of the investigation.

Contact Mark Bowes at mbowes@timesdispatch.com

Contact Luz Lazo at llazo@timesdispatch.com.

Contact Juan Antonio Lizama at jlizama@timesdispatch.com.

Staff photographer Clement Britt, staff writer Jamie C. Ruff and Deputy News Editor Tom Kapsidelis contributed to this report.