A child was among six people killed Tuesday night when a small Piper PA-46 plane came down in a densely wooded stretch of Wisconsin, the Sauk County Sheriff’s Office said. Emergency calls about a crash came in around 9:30 p.m. local time, and deputies located the wreckage west of Herwig Road. Storms were passing through the region at the time, ABC News noted.
The single-engine plane was on a return trip from Kenosha to Menomonie. All six occupants were found dead at the scene, and no one on the ground was injured, officials said. The names of the dead have not been released. Capt. Matt Burch of the sheriff’s office said they would be made public later, WKOW reported.
The crash site is near Mirror Lake State Park. The area was expected to remain closed through midday Wednesday. Lake Delton police, Delton fire and EMS crews, and the Wisconsin State Patrol also assisted the response, WKOW reported, and the Federal Aviation Administration and the NTSB were notified soon after the crash.
Final moments under review
The aircraft had communicated with a control tower close to the crash site before it went down, officials said. Investigators are reviewing those transmissions and whether weather in the area played a role, the sheriff’s office and the Federal Aviation Administration said.
Accounts of the flight’s last minutes differ. The New York Post, citing the National Transportation Safety Board, reported that the pilot flagged icing at about 24,000 feet and asked to land at a nearby airport, and that controllers approved the landing before communications and tracking data stopped. WKOW, quoting preliminary NTSB information, reported instead that the pilot asked to descend, that controllers approved the descent, and that the plane then entered a descending right turn that steepened until contact was lost. The NTSB has not issued a cause.
Ownership and departure
Sheriff Chip Meister told FOX6 Milwaukee that it was unclear who owned the aircraft and that it was not a commercial plane, Fox News reported. The New York Post, citing FlightAware, reported the aircraft took off from Kenosha Regional Airport shortly before 9 p.m.
What comes next
The FAA and the NTSB are leading the investigation. NTSB investigators were scheduled to arrive Wednesday to document the scene, and the aircraft will be moved to a secure facility for examination. The agency said it will review air traffic control communications and tracking data, weather conditions, the pilot’s flight history and the aircraft’s maintenance records, the New York Post reported.
A preliminary report is expected within 30 days. A final report identifying the probable cause could take 12 to 24 months, the NTSB said. Anyone with information or surveillance video may contact the NTSB at [email protected]. The cause of the crash, the identities of the victims and the owner of the plane remain unknown.
