Plane out of Lake in the Hills crashes in W. Virginia
A small plane took flight Friday afternoon from the Lake in the Hills Airport only to come crashing down hours later, killing all six occupants inside.
Everyone aboard the plane was from the Chicago area, and four were members of a Chicago-based Polish American aviation club. American Polish Aero-Club president Chester Wojnicki said Sunday the members and their two guests were flying Friday from Lake in the Hills to Clearwater, Fla.
Wojnicki identified the club members as Kazimierz Adamski of Morton Grove, Wieslaw Dobrzanski of Niles, Irenevsz Michalowski of Des Plaines and Stanislaw Matras of Chicago.
The two guests were Monika Niemiec and her father, Stanley Niemiec, both of Harwood Heights, he said. Wojnicki said the group planned to stop in West Virginia to look at a plane for sale.
The twin-engine Piper PA-34 struck a power line and crashed in a wooded area near the Ohio and Kentucky state lines. Its pilot radioed for help several times, warning that the aircraft was low on fuel.
Peter Knudson, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, said the exact cause of the crash is still under investigation. Knudson said he was aware of several reports about poor weather conditions and multiple communications from the pilot of the aircraft and officials at the Tri-State Airport in Kenova, W.Va., about extremely low fuel being a major problem.
"We don't know for certain," said Knudson of the cause of the crash. "Those are going to be areas of inquiry along with any flight plan, fuel load and flight load."
The plane was a 34-year-old, fixed-wing, two-engine aircraft known as a Piper PA-34-200T.
It is registered to a Wilmington, Del.-based company called Wesvin Inc. The address for the corporation is the home of many aircraft-related companies. It is unknown if the plane is one of the 105 aircraft based at the Lake in the Hills Airport.
Federal Aviation Administration officials said a preliminary check of accident or incident history for the company or aircraft turned up with no results, but a more thorough check will occur Monday.
Lake in the Hills Airport management was unreachable for comment Sunday evening.