The death of four friends in a fatal small plane crash is been investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board.
The Four friends were killed when the small plane they were in crashed in an Illinois farm field — just minutes after posing for a photo together aboard the doomed aircraft.
The aircraft was destroyed upon impact and they were all pronounced dead at the scene, officials said.
Pilot Joshua Daniel Sweers, 35, was all smiles with his three pals as they took off in the single-engine Piper PA28 around 3:19 p.m. Sunday from Creve Coeur airport, news station KSDK reported.
He was joined by Daniel A. Shedd, 37, of St. Charles, Missouri; Daniel Schlosser, 39, of Mount Morris, Michigan; and John S. Camilleri, 39, of Buffalo, New York.
The four friends were all graduates of Kettering University in Michigan, where they were members of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, the outlet reported.
“This was his first time flying with them and I’m not sure if he had ever been in a small plane before,” Shedd’s father, Charles Shedd, told the outlet. “He was looking forward to the trip.”
But around 25 minutes after takeoff, the plane crashed under unknown circumstances near a farmhouse about three miles south of Carlinville, according to authorities.
