A flying instructor and student pilot are dead after crashing a small plane in a rural area of Ohio County.
The FAA notified Kentucky State Police around 11:00 p.m. Wednesday night that a plane was missing from radar in the Whitesville area that includes parts of Ohio and Daviess counties.
KSP Trooper Corey Kings says the pair was from Eagle Flying Academy in Owensboro and conducting night-time drills between Bowling Green and Owensboro.
“Perhaps they were able to see the impending weather, the oncoming pop up storms," King told WKU Public Radio. "It appeared they tried to fly off to the east maybe to avoid it. Either way, it showed the plane circling and coming down abruptly.”
King says a drone located debris off Highway 764 in Ohio County. The remote area is heavily wooded and crews had to reach the scene on ATVs and by horseback.
The plane was a four-seater Piper PA-28.
The Ohio County Coroner's Office identified the pilots as 22-year-old Timothy McKellar, Jr. of Custer in Breckinridge County and 18-year-old Connor Quisenberry of Beaver Dam in Ohio County.
