June 16--The pilot of the single-engine airplane that crashed near the Madeline Island airport Saturday evening apparently was trying to land at the time, Ashland County Sheriff Mick Brennan said Sunday.
The plane crashed just after 6:30 p.m. Saturday, killing both men on board. The two men are not residents of the island and were from outside the Northland, the sheriff said.
Brennan said a witness saw the plane try to land, then abort the landing and apparently turn to make a second approach. The plane then went down in a wooded area just short of the runway.
"There was a loud crash and explosion when it crashed and then a fire," Brennan said after returning from viewing the crash site Sunday. '"It was engulfed in flames when the fire department arrived."
The two men killed in the crash were the only ones on the plane, Brennan said. Their names and hometowns have not yet been released pending notification of relatives.
"We're working with law enforcement down south to make sure the people in the plane are who we think they are. But we're going to wait until their next of kin confirm they were on the plane before we release any names," Brennan said.
Brennan said the men's bodies were removed the from the crash site Sunday morning. An autopsy is being conducted to determine the cause of death. He said investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration were headed to the scene Sunday afternoon.
FAA spokesman Roland Herwig said the aircraft was a single-engine Piper PA-24 Comanche. That plane is registered to a firm in La Crosse, Wis. Herwig said Sunday he could not provide any additional information.
The weather station at Kennedy Memorial Airport in Ashland, about 15 miles southwest of the crash site, reported partly cloudy skies and 10-mile visibility at 6 and 7 p.m. Saturday.
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