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FERRISBURGH, Vt. (AP) - A small plane crashed in Vermont near an airport in Ferrisburgh, killing the four people on board, police said Monday.
Among the dead are an aviation teacher from Middletown (CT) High School, a 15-year-old student in his class and her mother.
The Vermont State Police recovered the bodies from the wreckage of the four-seat, single-engine Piper aircraft that crashed Sunday in a wooded area near the Basin Harbor Airport. The victims' names have not been released.
The plane took off from the Windham Airport in Connecticut at about 8:30 a.m. Sunday for a roughly two-hour flight to the airport in Ferrisburgh, police said. The aircraft landed and the four people arrived for a brunch reservation at Basin Harbor, a resort on Lake Champlain. They left the restaurant shortly after noon to fly back to Connecticut and a witness reported seeing the plane on the runway at about 12:15 p.m., police said.
There was no reported distress call from the aircraft. When the occupants did not return to Connecticut as expected, relatives contacted police.
Middletown, Connecticut police notified the Vermont State Police late Sunday. Investigators found the wreckage after midnight Monday.
The victims' bodies were brought to the chief medical examiners office for autopsies to determine the cause and manner of death, police said.
Vermont State Police identify the four victims as:
- Paul Pelletier, 55, of Columbia, Connecticut
- Frank Rodriquez, 88, of Lebanon, Connecticut
- Susan Van Ness, 51, of Middletown, Connecticut
- Delilah Van Ness, 15, of Middletown, Connecticut
According to the Middletown Public Schools, Pelletier was the "remarkable" Aerospace and Manufacturing teacher at Middletown High School, Delilah was a "cherished" sophomore and Susan was her mother.
An NTSB investigator is scheduled to arrive at the scene of the crash on Tuesday, according to the agency.