Four bodies were found in the wreckage of a plane that took off from Connecticut and crashed in Vermont on Sunday, law enforcement officials announced Monday.
A four-seat, single-engine Piper aircraft departed Windham Airport for a flight of about two hours to Basin Harbor Airport in Ferrisburgh around 8:30 a.m. for a brunch reservation at Basin Harbor, according to Vermont State Police.
The party of four left the restaurant shortly after noon and were then expected to fly back to Connecticut on the privately owned plane. A witness reported seeing the airplane on the runway at about 12:15 p.m.
When the plane failed to return to Connecticut as expected, relatives of the occupants reported the situation to the Connecticut State Police and the Middletown Police Department, according to Vermont officials.
“No reports were received indicating an aircraft in distress or that a plane had crashed,” Vermont State Police noted in a news release.
The Federal Aviation Administration then used cellphone location data to determine the plane’s last known location was near the airstrip in Vermont. Middletown police then notified the Vermont State Police of the situation at about 10:20 p.m. Sunday, prompting a large emergency search of the area around the airstrip.
With the assistance of a drone flown by Middlebury police, state police said investigators located the wreckage of the aircraft at about 12:20 a.m. Monday in a wooded area to the east of the Basin Harbor Airport.
All four people on the plane, whose names haven’t been made public, were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash.
The bodies of the victims were brought to the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Burlington for autopsies to determine the cause and manner of death.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are leading an investigation into the cause of the crash.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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