A student pilot and instructor were killed in a plane crash near Whitesville, Kentucky. The crash occurred during a severe thunderstorm just after 1 PM. The plane was a single-engine Piper PA-28.
The two people on the plane were:
- Timothy McKellar: , 22, from Custer
- Connor Quisenberry: , 18, from Beaver Dam
McKellar was the pilot and Quisenberry was a flight student. The crash was investigated by the Kentucky State Police and the FAA. A drone located a debris field on Thursday morning. The bodies were found shortly after.
The initial search was based on the flight path, the pilot’s cellphone pings, and the Life360 app. Once the weather cleared, an airplane and three drones were launched to search the area.
FAA officials told USA TODAY that local authorities found the wreckage of the missing plane at 5:35 a.m. Thursday and confirmed that two people on board were killed.
Their names were not immediately released. The cause of the crash is under investigation by the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board.
Local officials said the pilots were on the way to Owensboro from Bowling Green and lost contact with a communication tower before the plane went down.
Officials used information from the flight path, pings from one of the pilot’s cell phones, and the Life360 app to determine where to search. Drones and an airplane were launched to search and the plane was found behind a church.
Officials from the Kentucky State Police, Daviess County Fire Department, Whitesville Fire Department, and Daviess County and Ohio County emergency services responded to the scene.
