PORT ORANGE , Fla., Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Two people died when a private plane crashed in the fog as it approached a private airport near Daytona Beach, Fla., officials said.
Although the identities of the two aboard the 2009 single-engine Epic LT were not immediately confirmed by the Volusia County Sheriff's Office, the plane was registered to Daryl Ingalsbe, CEO of Independent Technologies Inc., a company headquartered in Blair, Neb., with offices in the Minneapolis area. An obituary in the Omaha World-Herald Thursday said Ingalsbe "passed away in a plane crash."
Ingalsbe has homes in Spicer, Minn., and the Spruce Creek Fly-In, a residential neighborhood in Florida catering to pilots.
The New London-Spicer School District confirmed that Deb Solsrud, who was involved in the activities of the school district, was the other person aboard the plane, TwinCities.com reported Wednesday.
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Ingalsbe and Solsrud took a 21-day trip around the world together in an experimental plane in July, the Daytona Beach News-Journal said Wednesday.
A 911 caller said the plane entered a thick fog and entered "an inverted flat spin" as it approached the airport Tuesday evening.
Joe Friend, Spruce Creek Airport manager, likened the maneuver to "a falling leaf."
"The airplane is not considered to be flying at that point," he said.
The fog affected arrivals and departures at the nearby, and larger, Daytona Beach International Airport that evening.
The plane left the airport in Willmar, Minn., on Tuesday morning and traveled to Cleveland, Tenn., before heading to Florida. It crashed on the lawn of a home in the Spruce Creek Fly-In community. Nine aircraft-related fatalities have been reported at the Fly-In since 1993, FAA records indicate.
