A South Dakota plane crash over the weekend left no survivors, officials say, due to heavy winds and fog.
The plane was piloted by 30-year old Donald “DJ” Fischer, who had brought three others from Texas to complete a cattle sale. While authorities have not released the names of the deceased, the funeral home confirmed the deaths of Brent Beitelspacher and Logan Rau; the fourth victim has not been identified.
“This is one of those things that’s going to hit the community pretty hard, because I would venture to say there are probably are not many people here who D.J. didn’t touch their life in some way,” state Rep. Corey Brown said.
The wreckage was found at the South Dakota Wind Energy Center, having crashed into at least one of the turbines there due to low clouds and fog that created reduced visibility. An FAA spokesperson said the investigation into exactly what caused the crash could take weeks or months.
Sadden to hear of the tragic plane crash in South Dakota that took 4 lives – it crashed into a wind farm in the midst of foggy weather
— Lisa Thompson, MPP (@LisaThompsonMPP) April 29, 2014
@LisaThompsonMPP I blame @OntLiberal and @Kathleen_Wynne for builting windturbine farm. If wasn't there,might have made a safe landing.
— Bobby Watson (@BigBobbyWatson) April 29, 2014
Steve Stengel, a spokesman for NextEra Energy, Inc. said the weather is hampering the investigation near the wind turbines and that they haven’t been able to check out the damage yet.
“It’s been so foggy up there and we haven’t had a chance to investigate,” Stengel said.
Image via Wikimedia Commons
