BOSTON, June 3 (Reuters) - The brakes of a private jet that caught fire and crashed as it tried to take off on Saturday, killing seven people near Boston, had been applied at the time of the accident, a U.S. transportation official said on Tuesday.
National Transportation Safety Board investigator Luke Schiada told reporters that a review of the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder recovered from the Gulfstream jet showed that the aircraft had reached 191 miles per hour (307 kph) on the runway before the brakes were applied.
"There are indications that the brake pressures were rising consistent with deceleration and we also observed tire marks on the runway," said Schiada, who declined to discuss what could have caused the crew to want to slow the plane.
Killed in the crash at Hanscom Field in Bedford, Massachusetts, about 20 miles (35 km) northwest of Boston, were Lewis Katz, 72, the co-owner of the Philadelphia Inquirer, three of his friends, the plane's pilot and two crew members.
The plane rolled into the grass, struck an antenna that is part of the airport's instrument landing system, crashed through a chain link fence and down an embankment into a gully, according to federal investigators. (Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Bill Trott)
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