Skydiving plane crash kills four

GREENSBURG, Pa., June 16 (UPI) -- A small plane that crashed in western Pennsylvania, killing the pilot and three skydivers, hit a tree before plunging to the ground, investigators said.

A fourth skydiver was injured and taken to Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh after the Sunday crash. His condition was unavailable.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette identified the dead skydivers as Charles Bryant, 61, of Greensburg; Terry Blanish 52, of West Newton, and David Ray, 49, of Seward. The names of the pilot and injured skydiver were withheld.

The plane, a Cessna 205, apparently had engine trouble after taking off from Greensburg-Jeannette Regional Airport, about 25 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. Officials said the pilot turned and tried to make an emergency landing but hit a pine tree and crashed.

"If he had cleared that tree he would have made it," Ron Supancic, chief of the Claridge Volunteer Fire Department, told the newspaper.

Pictures showed the white plane overturned in a wooded area, its wings cracked off and the fuselage bent from the impact.