Appeared To Struggle With Flight Instructor Before Plane Went Down Near Pratt & Whitney Plant Last October

The Connecticut State Coroner has listed the cause of death for a student pilot who was fatally injured in an airplane accident last October as "undetermined."

The Hartford Courant reports that Medical Examiner James Gill says he cannot say with certainty that student pilots Feras Freitekh's death was a suicide. 

Freitekh was a student pilot aboard a Piper PA-34 Seneca that went down in East Hartford near the Pratt & Whitney plant on October 12. The airplane was consumed by a post-impact fire. The flight instructor, Arian Prevalla, said he was able to survive the accident by jumping out of the airplane before it impacted terrain. He told FBI investigators that Freitekh began acting erratically as they approached Hartford-Brainard Airport for landing, and that the accident seemed to be intentional. 

 Prevalla told investigators that he tried to regain control of the aircraft when Freitekh began to behave erratically. He said that he tried to get Freitekh's hands off the controls, but he would not give up control of the airplane. 
 
Freitekh was from Jordan, and was training to become a commercial at American Flight Academy, of which Prevalla is president. 
 
The FBI investigated the accident because of its proximity to the Pratt & Whitney plant to determine if it was an act of terrorism.

(Image from file. Not accident airplane)

FMI: www.ntsb.gov, www.fbi.gov