METZ, W.Va. — An investigative team with the National Transportation Safety Board is scheduled to arrive in Marion County Friday afternoon to begin an investigation into what caused a single-engine plane to crash claiming three lives.
The crash occurred near Metz.
New information released by the Marion County Sheriff’s Department late Friday morning said that at around 7 p.m. Thursday the Mannington Volunteer Fire Department and several units received a report of an aircraft down and began searching the area.
At 7:50 p.m., first responders located a wing in the Campbells Run area. At 8:20 p.m. the other wing and fuselage were found on a steep, heavily wooded embankment.
First responders confirmed the pilot and two passengers died in the crash. No names have been released.
The Marion County Sheriff’s Department secured the scene awaiting federal investigators.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane that crashed was a single-engine Piper PA-32 aircraft owned by Skyhawk Associates of Myerstown, Pennsylvania.
The plane was flying from Shawnee Field Airport in Bloomfield, Indiana to Deck Airport in Myerstown.
Registration information from the FAA said the plane was manufactured in 1980. It had a valid certificate set to expire on July 31, 2023.
The crash marks the second fatal aviation crash in West Virginia in less than two months.
A Huey helicopter crashed in Logan County on June 22 claiming six lives. The cause of that crash is also under investigation by the NTSB.
Reporter Mike Nolting of WAJR News also contributed to this story.