A small plane carrying five adults and a child was in contact with air traffic control before crashing into a wooded area in Wisconsin Tuesday night, killing everyone aboard and leaving investigators searching for answers about the aircraft’s final moments.
The Piper PA-46 was on a return flight from Kenosha to Menomonie when it went down in the Town of Dellona in Sauk County, according to the Sauk County Sheriff’s Office.
Authorities received multiple reports of a downed aircraft around 9:31 p.m. Tuesday and dispatched emergency crews to the area of Park Lane, where first responders discovered the wreckage in a densely wooded area west of Herwig Road.
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Rescue crews began searching for survivors while investigators worked to identify the aircraft and determine how many people were aboard.
All six occupants were ultimately found dead at the scene, authorities said. Their identities have not been released.
Investigators are now working to determine what communications took place between the aircraft and a nearby air traffic control tower before the crash, as well as whether weather conditions in the area may have played a role.
“We know that they had contact with the tower prior to the crash and investigators are looking into that today to find out what that communication was,” Sauk County Sheriff Chip Meister told FOX6 Milwaukee.
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Meister said it remained unclear who owned the aircraft but confirmed that it was not a commercial plane.
No structures were damaged, and no injuries were reported on the ground, according to the sheriff’s office.
The crash site remained secured Wednesday as investigators worked to piece together the circumstances surrounding the deadly flight.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have been notified and will lead the investigation into the cause of the crash, the sheriff’s office said.
