EDGARTOWN, Mass. - A small airplane crashed in a dense forest a mile short of the runway at Martha's Vineyard Airport, killing a former New Jersey legislator and three members of his family.
Police said air traffic controllers lost contact with the 1977 Mitsubishi twin-engine turboprop on its final approach late Friday.
Moments earlier, pilot Charles B. Yates had acknowledged an altitude alert from the airport tower with the words ''I am correcting,'' said National Transportation Safety Board inspector Stephen Demko.
Rescue crews found the plane engulfed in flames in the Manuel F. Correllus State Forest.
In addition to Yates, 61, the victims were identified as Anya Yates, 34; Elena Yates 8; and William Yates, 2, all of Princeton, N.J. Yates, a bank chairman, served in the New Jersey Legislature from 1972 to 1982. The family also owned property on Martha's Vineyard.
Denko said the weather was overcast when the plane went down but visibility was two miles under a 100-foot ceiling.
Another small plane crashed in heavy fog Friday night near San Dimas, Calif., at the edge of the Angeles National Forest. A student pilot and a flight instructor on board were killed.
The plane was on a training flight between Chino and a small airport in La Verne, about 10 miles away, said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Lt. Robert Crume.
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