Plane crash victim identified
BRODHEAD — The pilot killed in a single-engine plane crash Monday in Green County has been identified as a 77-year-old Illinois man, according to the Green County Sheriff’s Department.
The amateur-built plane piloted by Dennis R. Trone of Petersburg, Ill., crashed at about 5 p.m. in Spring Grove Township, about one-half mile south of Brodhead.
The cause of the crash near the Brodhead Airport remains under investigation. The plane crashed into a field near the runway, Green County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Jeff Skatrud said.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration were scheduled to meet with local authorities today, he said.
“We don’t have a sense if he was trying to land or if he had mechanical issues,” he said. “We just don’t know.”
At least one witness saw the actual crash, he said.
“It nose dived,” he said. “What led to it is what we don’t know.”
The plane apparently took off from the airport earlier in the day, but Skatrud said he didn’t know what time. Trone must have spent some “considerable time” at the airport because he had at least one hangar there, Skatrud said.
The Green County coroner pronounced Trone dead at the scene. He was the only one on board. An autopsy is planned for today.
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