On the morning of Oct. 13, drivers on Interstate 195 called 911 to report seeing something unusual — as one caller put it, “I just saw ... an explosion.”

A fixed-wing single-engine Socata TBM 700 plane had just crashed into the median on the highway, not long after taking off from New Bedford Regional Airport. Two people on board , a husband and wife, were killed. The couple, identified by authorities as Thomas and Agatha Perkins , of Middletown, Rhode Island, were headed to Wisconsin.

Massachusetts State Police learned of the crash around 8:15 a.m. on Oct. 13, a Monday.

An employee at Dartmouth Building Supply, which is located on Reed Road near the highway, told a dispatcher, “it looks like a plane just crashed.”

“We just [saw] a big gulf of flame and smoke,” the employee said.

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