Plane crash site found, two dead
Posted: August 10, 2015
By Holden Kurwicki
EDDYVILLE, IL -
UPDATE:
Illinois State Police confirm that a hiker found a crashed plane roughly five miles northwest of Eddyville, Illinois Monday evening.
The crash site is near Burden Falls in the Shawnee National Forest. ISP Troopers confirm to Local 6's Holden Kurwicki that the hiker discovered two deceased people inside the plane. The identities of the deceased are not being released at this time.
A WPSD Local 6 crew continues to track the latest developments.
ORIGINAL STORY:
The Pope County Sheriff's Office says they are looking for a plane that went missing Sunday night.
Pope County Sheriff Jerry Suits says they have set up a command center at Union Social Brethren Camp north of Eddyville, IL.
"They've been able to get an area here that we're getting more comfortable with searching and that's what we're going to do,” said Suits.
According to Suits, the plane took off from the Marion-Crittenden County Airport in Marion, Kentucky, Sunday afternoon with two people on board. The sheriff's office got a call around 2:30 a.m. that the plane may have gone missing.
They have already cleared a rural area of One Horse Gap Lake near Herod where they believed the downed plane might have been.
The entire search area is between Marion, Illinois and Marion, Kentucky and rough terrain has made coordinating search efforts a virtual nightmare.
"We don't have any cell service out here,” said Suits. “We have all of this technology, and I've got two of them and I can't get either one to work, but that's Pope County we're used to that."
To bridge the gaps in this rural area crews have relied on volunteers familiar with the terrain, but to this point no debris has been found.
"I've got some volunteers here on horseback and four wheelers that are helping us out,” said Suits. “It's a group effort for us and we appreciate their help."
However to this point, searchers have yet to find any evidence that the plane, and its two passengers, are nearby.
"I'm not Superman, but I'm going to stay out here until we find that aircraft,” said Suits.
| Date: | 09-AUG-2015 |
| Time: | 20:00+ |
| Type: | Airplane |
| Owner/operator: | |
| Registration: | |
| C/n / msn: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Airplane damage: | Unknown |
| Location: | Shawnee Nat'l Forest near Burden Falls, NW of Eddyville, IL -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Unknown |
| Departure airport: | Marion Crittenden Co (5M9) |
| Williamson Co Rgnl (KMWA) |
The aircraft impacted mountainous terrain in the Shawnee National Forest near Burden Falls, northwest of Eddyville, Illinois. The airplane sustained unreported damage and the two occupants onboard received fatal injuries. Weather may have been a factor to the accident. Sources:
http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=178513 http://thesouthern.com/news/local/updated-pope-county-investigating-possible-plane-crash/article_f4fea809-d5e7-5cea-88cf-4f058f3281ec.html
http://www.wpsdlocal6.com/story/29754550/search-still-ongoing-for-missing-plane