Plane crash claims 6 lives

Flight went down in Price County

Six people aboard a Cessna airplane were killed in a crash in northern Wisconsin.

The plane crashed at 3:21 a.m. Saturday near Phillips, the Price County Sheriff’s Office said. The plane was found near State Highway 111 and U.S. Highway 8 in the Town of Harmony.

The Cessna 421 had left from the Chicago area and was heading to Canada on a fishing trip, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Authorities did not release the number of victims in the crash until Sunday. The victims were all adults, Price County Sheriff’s Lt. Gabe Lind said. No names were released.

However, two of the plane’s passengers were identified in a Facebook post from Tioga Elementary School in Bensenville, Ill., a community just southwest of O’Hare International Airport. The post announced the death of physical education teacher Thomas DeMauro and a maintenance director for the district, Charles Tomlitz.

“Mr. DeMauro and Mr. Tomlitz will be missed by all the Tioga Community,” the school’s coprincipals wrote in the post.

As of Sunday evening, more than 250 people shared the post and nearly 100 had commented. Parents and former students mourned the loss of the two men. Many remembered the two for their positivity and friendliness.

National Transportation

Safety Board investigators said there was a discussion between the pilot and air traffic controllers about “local weather phenomenon.” Soon after, the aircraft dropped off radar.

The NTSB, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Sheriff’s Office are investigating the crash.

Lind said the department received help finding

the main part of the wreckage from a private citizen with a helicopter. Members of the Prentice, Phillips, KennanGeorgetown, CatawbaHarmony, Ogema, Fifield and Hawkins fire departments also responded.

“There were a lot of people who volunteered to help with the search and rescue,” he said.

Sandy Jensen, owner of Happy Daze bar and restaurant in the Village of Kennan, sent burgers, cheese curds, coffee and Fourth of July parade candy to law enforcement

and other first responders on the scene.

“We did what we could to keep them going,” she said. “Anything to give them a little extra energy.”

Jensen said she starting preparing the food shortly after she heard about the crash early Saturday morning. She said the surrounding area has a tight-knit sense of community.

“It brings it all closer to home. It’s shocking,” she said. “It just kind of giveseverybody a wakeup call.”