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http://www.freep.com/news/statewire/sw98690_20040531.htm
Three killed in crash of homemade plane (Lancair IVP) near Lansing
May 31, 2004, 7:09 PM
VERMONTVILLE, Mich. (AP) -- A small, homemade plane crashed in a rural area
of central Michigan on Monday afternoon, killing the three people aboard,
authorities said.
There was no immediate word on what caused the crash of the Lancair plane,
which is an aircraft built from a kit, Federal Aviation Administration
spokesman Tony Molinaro said. He said the plane, which was destroyed, was
flying from Ypsilanti to Billings, Mont.
The Lancair IV-P was registered to Ward Synthesis Inc. in Washtenaw
County's Superior Township, north of Ypsilanti, according to the FAA. The
company, a University of Michigan spinoff, is involved in the development
of flat-panel displays.
The crash happened about 2 p.m. EDT in Eaton County's Vermontville
Township, about a mile west of Vermontville and about 30 miles west of
Lansing, the Eaton County Sheriff's Department said.
"Witnesses report that the plane rolled skyward, then nose-dived to the
ground," the department said in a news release.
"It was a deep dive," witness Ben Page told WILX-TV in Lansing. Others told
the station they heard the engine quit then restart then quit.
Area residents called the county's central dispatch center, and authorities
then were able to locate the wreckage. Air controllers in Grand Rapids lost
contact with the four-seat plane about the same time, the release said.
The crash killed all three people on board, Molinaro said.
Molinaro said it was reported to the FAA that they were two adults and a
child, while Eaton County Sheriff Rick Jones told reporters it appeared
there were three men on board, "one older and two younger."
Skies were partly cloudy at the time, with southwest winds about 18 miles
per hour, the National Weather Service said.
The pressurized plane, which has a gross weight of 3,500 pounds, has a
cruising speed of 330 miles per hour and a cruising altitude of 24,000
feet, according to Lancair.
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