Four Connecticut residents were killed in a plane crash in Vermont over the weekend, including a 15-year-old girl who was taking flying lessons, authorities said Monday.
Vermont State Police said in a release Monday that they have recovered the bodies of four victims following a plane crash in Addison County in the western part of the state. All four were from Connecticut, and they were identified Monday as 55-year-old Paul Pelletier, of Columbia, 88-year-old Frank Rodriguez, of Lebanon, and 51-year-old Susan Van Ness, and her daughter 15-year-old Delilah Van Ness, both of Middletown.
Middletown, Connecticut, police said Monday that Delilah, a sophomore at Middletown High School, was taking flight lessons with Pelletier, who is the school's aviation technology teacher. The school district announced Monday that Middletown High School will be closed Tuesday and all scheduled athletic competitions will be rescheduled. Counseling will be available to students and staff at the high school during normal school hours.
"This unimaginable loss has left a void in our hearts and our community," Middletown School Superintendent Alberto Vázquez Matos said in a statement. "Paul, Delilah, and Susan were special individuals whose absence is already being felt throughout our district and city."
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State police said their preliminary investigation determined that a four-seat, single-engine Piper aircraft departed Windham Airport in Connecticut around 8:30 a.m. Sunday for a flight of about two hours to Basin Harbor Airport in Ferrisburgh, Vermont. The privately owned plane landed and the occupants arrived for brunch reservations at Basin Harbor. They left the restaurant shortly after noon and were scheduled to fly back to Connecticut.
A witness reported seeing the plane on the runway around 12:15 p.m.
No reports were received indicating an aircraft in distress or that a plane had crashed, state police said. But when the plane failed to return to Connecticut as expected, relatives reported the situation to Connecticut State Police and Middletown, Connecticut, police. Those agencies worked with the Federal Aviation Administration and used cell phone location data to determine that the plane's last known location was near the airstrip in Vermont.
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Connecticut police notified Vermont State Police of the situation around 10:20 p.m. Sunday. Vermont state troopers responded along with members of the Middlebury Police Department and the Vergennes Fire Department. With the assistance of a police drone, investigators were able to locate the wreckage of the aircraft around 12:20 a.m. Monday in a wooded area just to the east of Basin Harbor Airport.
First responders confirmed that all four occupants were dead.
State police said the bodies of the victims were brought to the medical examiner's office in Burlington, where autopsies will be conducted to determine the cause and manner of death.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are leading the crash investigation, while state poice are responsible for the death investigation.
