Nov. 07--Two Volusia County pilots died Saturday afternoon when their plane crashed minutes after taking off from a private airport in Levy County.

Ralph Ken Terry, 74, of Daytona Beach, and Mike Fuller, 47, of Port Orange, died at the scene. They were onboard a 1956 Beechcraft T-34, a single-engine craft that was registered to Terry. He was on the passenger seat but was also a veteran pilot who retired from Northwestern Airlines after completing 30 years of service and had logged more than 60,000 flying hours, said Maj. Evan Sullivan, a spokesman with the Levy County Sheriff's Office.

Fuller, the plane's pilot, was a manager at Yelvington Jet Aviation in Daytona Beach, a company that provides fueling, hangars and other aviation services for private planes out of the Daytona International Airport.

A release from the Levy County Sheriff's Office said that witnesses observed the plane's engine sputter immediately after taking off at 4:30 p.m. It then crashed into a wooded area adjacent to the airport.

The accident is now being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration.

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