Authorities ID girl who died at state park beach

Authorities have identified a 4-year-old girl who is believed to have drowned at a state park.

Fatuma Hassan, who lived in Delaware, was reported missing just after 6 p.m. Saturday at Alum Creek State Park beach, said Stephanie Leis, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. She was visiting the beach with her family.

Fatuma was pulled from the water and taken to the Nationwide Children’s Hospital facility in Lewis Center. She was flown to the Columbus main hospital, where she died Saturday night.

Leis said Fatuma’s death will not be classified as a drowning until the investigation is complete and a coroner’s report is issued.

Within swimming areas at Ohio’s state parks, there were no drownings this year or last year. In 2015, there was one drowning at Deer Creek State Park and another drowning in 2014 at Guilford Lake State Park, Leis said.

A couple from Indiana have been identified as the victims in the crash of a small plane in northern Washington County over the weekend.

The two were identified Monday as Umamaheswara Kalapatapu, 63, who was piloting the plane when it crashed Saturday, and his wife, SithaGita Kalapatapu, 61. They are from Logansport, Indiana.

The bodies were recovered early Saturday afternoon, after the plane crashed into a retention pond near the village of Beverly, which is southeast of Columbus near Marietta.

The Piper Archer PA-28 went down near a defunct American Electric Power plant, probably between 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Saturday. The private aircraft was headed to Parkersburg, West Virginia, from an airport north of Indianapolis but didn’t arrive at its scheduled time of 10:30 a.m., said Sgt. Garic Warner of the State Highway Patrol’s Marietta post said.

The Washington County sheriff’s office searched area airports, and the plane was reported missing around noon.

The patrol discovered the wreckage about 2 p.m. with assistance from Beverly Fire and EMS. The West Virginia Wing Civil Air Patrol said the plane had lost radar contact about 10:30 a.m.

Mr. Kalapatapu was issued a private pilot certificate in May 2004 and was up-to-date on his medical certificate, according to an FAA online database.

The plane is registered to Raj Airlines Inc., which has the same Logansport address as the pilot.