6 Dead, Including Child, in Small Plane Crash Near Wisconsin Dells

Six people, including a child, were killed when a small plane crashed in a wooded area near Wisconsin Dells on Tuesday night, authorities said.

The single-engine plane went down near Mirror Lake State Park in the Town of Dellona in Sauk County. Five adults and one child who were on board were found dead at the scene, the Associated Press reported. Their names and ages, including the age of the child, have not been released.

What We Know About the Crash

Sauk County Sheriff Chip Meister said dispatchers received multiple reports of a downed aircraft around 9:31 p.m. Deputies and emergency crews found the wreckage in a densely wooded area north of Park Lane and west of Herwig Road.

"At this time, multiple individuals have been confirmed deceased," Meister said in a statement Wednesday morning, before the number of victims was confirmed, according to WISN.

Meister said there were no survivors. "As a result of the search, all six occupants of the aircraft were located deceased on scene," the sheriff's office said, according to ABC News.

The FAA identified the plane as a six-seat, single-engine Piper PA-46. It was on a return trip from Kenosha to Menomonie, and flight tracking data shows it took off from Kenosha Regional Airport shortly before 9 p.m., meaning it had been in the air for roughly half an hour when it went down.

Early reports placed the crash in Reedsburg or Baraboo, but the sheriff's office said it happened in the Town of Dellona, which sits northwest of Madison and west of Wisconsin Dells. Officials initially said as many as six people may have been on board before confirming that all six had died.

Police said no buildings were damaged and no one on the ground was hurt.

Pilot Reported Icing Before Crash

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the plane was flying at 24,000 feet when the pilot reported icing and asked to descend, KSTP reported.

Air traffic control approved the descent. The plane then turned right as it descended until communications and data tracking were lost.

Rain was falling as a thunderstorm moved through the area at the time of the crash. Investigators are reviewing the plane's communications with a nearby air traffic control tower and whether the weather played a role. "We know that they had contact with the tower prior to the crash," Meister said, according to WSAW.

The NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating. The FAA said the NTSB is leading the investigation. A cause has not been determined, and the sheriff's office said investigators are working "to determine the circumstances surrounding the crash."

A Large Emergency Response

The Sauk County Sheriff's Office was assisted at the scene by the Lake Delton Police Department, the Delton Fire Department, Dells/Delton EMS, the Sauk County Coroner's Office and the Wisconsin State Patrol. The crash site remained secured Wednesday morning as investigators continued their work at the scene.

The crash happened in a residential neighborhood near the state park, though the plane came down in the woods. Officials have not said who was piloting the plane, how the victims were related or why they were traveling to Menomonie, a city in western Wisconsin.

A String of Deadly Crashes

The Wisconsin crash adds to a string of deadly small-plane accidents across the country this year. In August, there were no survivors after a plane crash at a remote site in Alaska. In June, four plane crashes in four days left 20 people dead.

Authorities are expected to release the names of the victims once their families have been notified.

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