A group of four people who died in a private plane crash in Vermont have been identified; one of the deceased is a 15-year-old girl.
Paul Pelletier, 55, Frank Rodriquez, 88, Susan Van Ness, 51, and Delilah Van Ness, 15, all of Connecticut, were named as the victims.
The four-person Piper plane left the state’s Windham Airport around 8:30 a.m. Sunday and landed in Vermont for their brunch reservation at an upscale restaurant in Basin Harbor.
But when they did not return to Connecticut later that day, their families reported them missing, leading to the plane being located early Monday in a “wooded area east of Basin Harbor Airport” in Ferrisburgh.
The airport is located next to a 700-acre resort where the four had just finished lunch. They were all pronounced dead at the scene Monday morning, Vermont State Police confirmed in a statement.
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A group of four people who died in a private plane crash in Vermont on Sunday have been identified. Pilot Paul Pelletier (pictured), a 55-year-old man from Columbia, Connecticut, was among the dead. It is unclear if the plane pictured was the one that crashed.
Also identified were Susan Van Ness, 51, and her daughter Delilah, 15, an aviation enthusiast.
“A preliminary investigation determined that the four-seat, single-engine Piper aircraft had departed Windham Airport in Connecticut at approximately 8:30 a.m. Sunday,” troopers wrote at 8:40 a.m.
After the two-hour flight, “the private plane landed and the occupants arrived for a brunch reservation at Basin Harbor,” police confirmed, revealing that “the group left the restaurant shortly after noon and was scheduled to fly back to Connecticut.”
‘A witness reported seeing the plane on the runway at around 12:15 p.m., the statement added, before echoing previous police statements that said officials had received ‘no reports indicating an aircraft was in distress’ before the crash.
“However, after the aircraft failed to return to Connecticut as expected, family members of the occupants reported the situation to the Connecticut State Police and the Middletown (Connecticut) Police Department,” the statement continued.
‘Those agencies worked with the Federal Aviation Administration and used cellphone location data to determine that the plane’s last known location was near the runway in Vermont.’
With the help of a drone flown by Middlebury police, investigators were later able to locate the remains around 12:20 a.m. Monday, state police said.
First responders confirmed that all four, including the mother and daughter, Susan and Delilah, were deceased.
The bodies were then taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Burlington, where autopsies are now being performed to determine the cause and manner of death.
The bodies were taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Burlington, where autopsies are now being performed to determine the cause and manner of death. Pictured: Paul Pelletier
Paul Pelletier (right) is pictured flying a plane with his surviving wife.
Meanwhile, the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash, which more than a day later remains unexplained.
DailyMail.com has contacted the FAA for comment.
VSP’s Criminal Investigations Bureau is the agency responsible for the death investigation.
Social media posts show Pelletier was a pilot who apparently preferred single-engine aircraft and also taught young aspiring pilots how to fly drones.
He is seen posing and flying various planes on Facebook.
Delilah’s social media portrayed her as a studious high school student with an interest in aviation.
She said online that her interests are “robotics, aviation, cello and art.”
Her mother, Susan Van Ness, worked as a program manager at the National Diaper Bank Network in Middletown, Connecticut.
This is a developing story; please check back for updates.
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