West Fork man dies in Missouri plane crash

ASHLAND, Mo. (KNWA/KFTA) — A West Fork man is dead after a single-engine plane crashed in Boone County, Missouri, on Tuesday.

An incident notice from the Federal Aviation Administration released on Wednesday said a single-engine Piper PA-46 “crashed into the tree under unknown circumstances”

KOMU-TV reported the Boone County Sheriff’s Office identified the pilot as Wade Bates, 58, from West Fork.

Flight Radar 24 , a flight tracking website, showed a plane that had the same registration number take off from Madison, Wisconsin around 9:50 a.m. on Tuesday, with Siloam Springs being the intended destination.

The log from Flight Radar showed the plane dropped more than 10,000 feet in one minute and 20 seconds.

The National Transportation Safety Board told KOMU a preliminary report is expected within a month of the accident and the entire investigation could take more than a year.

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