Five Family Members Die in Small Plane Crash in Rural Upstate New York.
The passengers, including a 10-year-old and a 12-year-old, had traveled to Cooperstown for a baseball tournament, the authorities said.
Five family members traveling to a baseball tournament were killed when their small plane crashed in upstate New York on Sunday afternoon, according to authorities.
The single-engine Piper PA-46 went down around 2 p.m. in a rural area of Delaware County, near Sidney, about 40 miles northeast of Binghamton, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported. All five people on board were killed, and the wreckage was found later that evening.
The victims, identified by state police, were Roger Beggs, 76; Laura VanEpps, 43; Ryan VanEpps, 42; James R. VanEpps, 12; and Harrison VanEpps, 10. The family was from Georgia and had been in Cooperstown, N.Y., for a baseball tournament.
The plane had taken off from Albert S. Nader Regional Airport in Oneonta, N.Y., with plans to refuel in West Virginia before continuing to Atlanta.
The cause of the crash remains unknown, and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is leading the investigation, alongside the FAA, New York State Police, and other agencies.
Sarah Taylor Sulick, a public affairs specialist for the NTSB, said an update is expected by Monday evening. According to Dallis Wright, Delaware County Emergency Services’ deputy coordinator, multiple calls were received on Sunday about a plane in distress.
The National Weather Service in Binghamton requested a spot forecast around 2:30 p.m. to assist in the aircraft search.
