Associated Press
TUPELO, Miss. — Mississippi officials are naming the four people who died in a plane crash near Tupelo Regional Airport.
Lee County Coroner Carolyn Green says the dead include the pilot, 75-year-old Henry Jackson and his wife, 70-year-old Gwynn Groggell. Another married couple, 69-year-old Charles Torti and 59-year-old Carrie Torti, also died. All were residents of Kerrville, Texas.
Green says she identified the victims by interviewing family members and checking a flight manifest.
The bodies were badly burned in a fire after the Beechcraft Bonanza registered to Jackson and Groggel crashed just after takeoff Monday. The plane was scheduled to fly to Charlottesville, Virginia.
Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Arlene Salac said the pilot reported smoke in the cockpit before
the crash.