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2 die in crash of Valley-registered plane
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This plane registered to Air McRoyal of Youngstown crashed Sunday at Wheeler Downtown Airport in Kansas City. According to flight records, the plane took off from Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport on Thursday.
Staff and wire report
KANSAS CITY, Mo.
A man and a woman have been killed after a single-engine plane crashed at a small airport near downtown Kansas City.
The plane was registered to Air McRoyal, of Youngstown, according to FAA records.
The plane had taken off from Youngstown-Regional Airport at 3:31 p.m. Thursday, stopping at the Purdue University Airport before landing at the Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport in Kansas City at 8:48 p.m., according to online flight records.
Fire department spokesman James Garrett says the single-engine airplane built by Mooney Aviation Co. crashed shortly after taking off Sunday afternoon from the Wheeler airport. Garrett says the two people on board were killed. No other injuries were reported.
Authorities said the plane was leaving the airport about 2:45 p.m. Sunday when it crashed on the south side of the levee about a quarter-mile from the runway.
The victims’ identities hadn’t been released as of late Sunday.
Lynn Lunsford, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, says the pilot reported engine trouble shortly after departing the airport. He said the plane crashed about a quarter mile from the airport.
Lunsford said investigators were headed to the scene.
Wheeler Airport, located just west of downtown Kansas City, is used largely by corporate and recreational flyers.
Records for Air McRoyal LLC show the company as being incorporated in Ohio and located at 100 E. Federal St. Suite 300. There is also no contract information for the company of state records.
Dan Dickten, director of the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, said Air McRoyal did not rent any hangar space directly from the airport although it could have leased spaced from another company at the airport.