RIVERSIDE, W.Va. — Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board released the names Saturday of the two victims killed in a plane crash Friday evening in eastern Kanawha County.
The NTSB said Lazarus Sommers, 50, and his wife, Maryann Sommers, 56, of Millersburg, Ohio, died at the scene of hillside crash about a mile from U.S. Route 60, less than 30 miles from Charleston, in the Riverside area of Kanawha County. There was no one else on the plane.
The Sommers left Akron, Ohio Friday afternoon en route to Spartanburg, S.C. when the Piper PA-32 plane veered off course and crashed.
The crash site is right across the Kanawha River from the town of Pratt and some residents there first saw the wreckage and helped guide emergency crews to the scene Friday evening. There were also several eyewitnesses in the Kelley’s Creek area near Cedar Grove.
Investigators from the FAA and NTSB were on the scene Saturday. The NTSB will continue the investigation.