A family of five, including the parents, their two sons, and their grandfather pilot, have been killed in a plane crash in upstate New York. The family, from Georgia, had flown to the region for a baseball tournament, where their eldest child hit a home run.
The plane, a single-engine Piper PA-46, was being flown by the children’s grandfather, 76-year-old Roger Beggs, when it came down in a rural, wooded area at around 2pm on Sunday afternoon.
Beggs was killed in the crash alongside his daughter Laura VanEpps, 43, her husband, Ryan, 42, and their two children, 12-year-old James and his brother Harrison VanEpps, who was 10.
The plane had just taken off from Alfred S. Nader Regional Airport in Oneonta when it crashed in Delaware County, near Sidney, about 40 miles northeast of Binghamton.
The wreckage of the plane and the remains of the five people on board were found on Sunday night in the town of Masonville, the New York State Police said. Drones, all-terrain vehicles, and helicopters were used to search for the remote crash site, which is about 125 miles northwest of New York City.