Four people have died in a plane crash in Hyde County. Authorities say the wreckage of the single-engine aircraft was found near Highmore either late last night or this morning. The passengers were on a flight from Hereford, Texas to Gettysburg, South Dakota. Tony Molinaro is with the Federal Aviation Administration in Chicago.
Molinaro says, “We were told there were four people on board, and we were told all were fatalities. So the FAA has sent a team out to begin an investigation, and with fatalities, the FAA does do the investigation, but the NTSB is the lead investigator for the investigation.”
Molinaro says he’s not sure whether the pilot of the small airplane filed a flight plan before taking off from Texas. A search of the aircraft’s registration number on the F-A-A website shows the Piper PA-32 is owned by an individual from Gettysburg.
A weather official says flying conditions would have been very difficult around the time of the crash. Dave Hintz is with the National Weather Service in Aberdeen.
Hintz says, "I know down in that neck of the woods, if we’re talking about overnight—there were some stratus clouds, some low clouds, some drizzle—I know that the Hand County Sheriff had said when they got on scene, visibility was pretty poor, maybe 50 to 100 foot (sic) at best. That’s what the conditions were at the time.”
According to the F-A-A, the plane was owned by a Gettysburg resident. Names of the four victims are being withheld until relatives are notified.