Investigators on scene of fatal plane crash

Investigators on scene of fatal plane crash

By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief

PERE MARQUETTE TOWNSHIP — Investigators are currently on the scene of a fatal plane crash that occurred Sunday morning. The crash resulted in the death of a 43-year-old female, a 60-year-old male from Indiana along with two dogs. Mason County Sheriff Kim Cole stated the fixed wing, single engine airplane took off on runway 8, which heads northeast, and then veered to the north, crashing in the field. The plane was fully engulfed in flames when the first emergency units arrived.

The crash site is in a 10 acre field, surrounded by woods, a few hundred yards west of Meyers Road north of the Mason County Airport.

MSP reported Sunday afternoon that the Federal Aviation Administration was on scene investigating and representatives from the National Transportation Safety Bureau were expected to arrive today.

Emergency personnel were dispatched to the scene at 10:01 a.m. Mason-Oceana 911 initially reported the center had received an iPhone notification of a crash. The incident was initially dispatched as a car crash until the 911 center received notification that it was a plane crash.

Weather conditions about the time of the crash were 95 percent cloud cover with less than one mile visibility, snowing, with winds 7 mph west-southwest with gusts up to 16 mph. Temperature was 33 degrees.

The last plane crash to occur in Mason County was in January of this year when the front landing gear of a small plane gave out upon landing, causing the airplane’s nose to make contact with the runway. There were no injuries as a result of that crash. The last fatal plane crash to occur in Mason County happened in July 2010 when a plane carrying five people crashed into Lake Michigan near Big Sable Point resulting in the death of four people.

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