2 killed in San Angelo-area plane crash identified

SAN ANGELO, Texas (AP) — The Texas Department of Public Safety has released the identities of two people killed in the crash of their small biplane while sightseeing a West Texas wildfire.

DPS records list the dead as 24-year-old John Timothy Rice of Maddock, N.D., and 23-year-old Peter Sohms of Londonderry, N.H.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford says the wreckage was found Monday east of San Angelo. Witnesses told investigators the two-seat Christen Eagle took off from Mathis Field/San Angelo Municipal Airport on Sunday on what was described as an apparent sightseeing trip over the wildfire.

Lunsford says both were believed to be in the Air Force, but weren’t flying in any official capacity.