2 killed in small-plane crash
BRISTOL — Two people were killed Tuesday when a small fixed-wing aircraft crashed in a wooded area near Bristol.
Police were called to the crash in the 52000 block of C.R. 21 at 2:20 p.m., the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Office said.
Responding officers located aircraft in a wooded area, the report said. A preliminary investigation revealed two occupants in the aircraft were deceased.
Additional information from police was not immediately available, but one of the victims was identified by relatives as Wendell Ridenour of Elkhart, according to WNDU-TV.
The family told WNDU that Ridenour was a passionate aviator who built the plane from scratch and often flew with other local pilots.
Flight records show the plane was flying from Branch County Memorial Airport in Coldwater, Michigan, a 35-minute flight from the Elkhart Municipal Airport, where the plane was presumed to be heading.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane was a single-engine Zenith Air Zodiac CH-601.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating.
