Photo: KWQC
(Muscatine County, Iowa) -- The two people killed in a Wednesday plane crash in Muscatine County are identified.
The Muscatine County Sheriff’s Office says 68 year old Daniel Slack and 69 year old Sharon Slack died in the crash. The couple was from El Dorado Springs, Missouri.
Just after 2:30 Wednesday afternoon, the sheriff's office got word from Quad-City Air Traffic Control that there was a possibly downed aircraft west of Highway 38 on 170th Street. Air controllers lost both radio and radar contact with the pilot in the area. Emergency crews responded to the area and shortly after located the crashed plane in a field approximately a quarter-mile north of 170th Street.
The preliminary accident and incident report shows the pilot, who has not been named at this time, crashed under “unknown circumstances” in a field in Muscatine. Officials say following an “extensive search” first responders located two victims, the sole occupants, among the wreckage.
Following an investigation, officials believe the two left Ford Airport near Iron Mountain, Michigan, and were heading back to Missouri. “It is unknown at this time what may have been the cause of the accident,” officials said in a release. Officials say both the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are on the scene conducting investigations.
Between 60 to 80 volunteers from various agencies assisted in searching the scene.