Update 3:13 p.m. – Ohio County Coroner Elvis Doolin confirmed the identity of the two victims. The pilot was Timothy McKellar Jr., 22, of Custer, and the flight student was Connor W. Quisenberry, 18, of Beaver Dam. Both are scheduled for an autopsy tomorrow in Madisonville.
Update 11:50 a.m. – Kentucky State Police Trooper Corey King confirms that the bodies of both passengers have been located in Ohio County. Both passengers are believed not to be Daviess County residents.
King said that they cannot confirm on if the weather from last night’s storm led to the crash. The crash site was located at roughly 9 a.m. Thursday morning.
Both passengers were students of Owensboro’s Eagle Flight Academy. According to King, the plane was a four-seater with a 22-year-old instructor as the pilot and an 18-year-old as the passenger.
King said they were flying from Bowling Green to Owensboro on a training flight.
“Part of getting the pilot license, the way I understand, they have to so many hours of nighttime flying, and that’s what this was,” King said. “We were able to see the course of travel for this plane, maybe perhaps they saw the storm coming.”
According to the course of travel, the plane tried to avert their direction away from the storm to get away from the storm.
“Based on the patterns we can see from the recording, they did try to avert or move into a different way, maybe perhaps around it,” King said. “At that point, it looked like a down draft or something pushed the plane down rapidly.”
As the plane crashed into the woodline, the plane began to tear apart, resulting in a debris field that measured close to half a mile. Some debris had even blown outside of the crash zone, King said, but it did not help find the location due to the distance it traveled.
King said that he is not privy to any mayday calls that may have come in prior to the crash.
The two bodies were removed and await an autopsy from either Madisonville or Louisville.
King said that KSP and the Federal Aviation Administration are leading the investigation, with the National Transportation Safety Board as assistance.
Update: 9:08 a.m. – Sheriff Brad Youngman confirmed they have found the plane approximately 45 minutes ago.
“It is a debris field in a heavily wooded area. It is tough to get to,” Youngman said.
There are units still on scene and are still searching for the survivors.
Original story:
Daviess and Ohio county sheriff’s offices are currently searching for a downed plane and two passengers outside of Whitesville after learning of a potential crash late Wednesday night.
In a joint statement from DC Sheriff Brad Youngman and OC Sheriff Adam Wright, the initial search was set up based on information from the flight path, cell phone pings of the pilot’s cell phone and the life 360 app.
Units are currently searching on foot and from the air hopeful that they will find the pilots alive and rescue personnel are also staged for medical treatment, the statement reads.
The plane was believed to have two passengers on board — an instructor pilot and student pilot — who were en route to Owensboro from Bowling Green when the tower lost contact, according to DCSO.
At the time of the suspected crash a severe thunderstorm had developed in the area.
Shortly after units focused on that area paperwork associated with an aircraft was located in a heavily wooded area behind New Panther Creek Church in Ohio County, DCSO reports
DCSO Said at 10:55 p.m. on Wednesday, Owensboro-Daviess County Central Dispatch received a report from Evansville Airport Control Tower of a possible airplane crash near Whitesville. After the call came in, units from the Daviess County Sheriff’s Office and Ohio County Sheriff’s Office assumed joint command of the search due to the proximity to the county line.
Youngman said that 3 drones and an airplane were launched to search the area from the air once weather cleared and as more information became available the search was centered around New Panther Creek Church inside Ohio County on Highway 764.
Kentucky State Police, Daviess County Fire, Whitesville FD, Daviess County and Ohio County EMA, Ohio County EMS all responded to the command post which was initially established at Deserter Creek and Old Deserter Creek Roads.
This story will be updated as information is learned.
