Crash victims identified

SHINE - Officials identified Friday the two victims who were killed when their passenger airplane crashed into a field about 100 yards behind a row of houses on Oakdale Drive.

Mark J. Sobel, 56, and Joan Wilson, 56, both of 20270 Riverbrooke Run, Estero, Fla., were aboard their Lancair IV-P on Thursday flying from Fort Meyers, Fla., to Hartford, Conn., when the plane's wings began to build up with ice.

Medical Examiner Bill Taylor performed an autopsy Friday on the two victims' bodies at Pitt Memorial Hospital in Greenville. According to officials, Wilson kept her maiden name after she married Sobel.

The autopsy report showed Wilson and Sobel did not survive the plane's initial crash impact, Greene County Sheriff Lemmie Smith said.

Dennis Diaz, an air safety investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, said preliminary reports show the craft first having problems at 15,000-feet. The flight was scheduled to take about five hours on Thursday.

Emergency personnel from Shine, New Hope, Jason and Fort Run fire departments responded to the crash scene at 1:21 p.m. Thursday, where they found a plane fully engulfed in flames. It took firefighters 15 minutes to extinguish the blaze.

Officials from the Federal Aviation Administration's Greensboro office were on the crash scene Friday, Diaz said.

The crash investigation will include examining air traffic control communications, weather conditions, plane flight logs, the pilot's background and plane's maintenance history.

Diaz said a preliminary report on the fatal plane crash will be available on the NTSB Web site in about 10 days. The investigation is expected to be completed in nine months, and 60 days later a probable cause of the plane crash will be issued, he said. 

Chris Lavender can be reached at (252) 559-1078 or clavender@freedomenc.com.