14 DAY TRIAL // A couple from Oklahoma died in a plane crash in Arkansas on Monday, reports say. The victims have been identified as Ivan Williams and his wife, Adina, both from Pryor.
UPI reported that the plane lost communication with the control tower at around 2 p.m. on Monday.
The plane went down in Madison County, Arkansas, while traveling from Alabama to Claremore, Oklahoma.
The 1997 Piper Saratoga plane took off from Sylacauga, Ala., after 11 a.m. and it was bound for a four hour journey.
“It was a boom! I thought what on earth is going on?” witness Phyllis Turner Sisk recalls.
The remains of the victims were recovered on Tuesday. The Williams couple were the only passengers on board.
“It was cloudy and rainy in the vicinity of where the plane disappeared. The terrain is mountainous,” reads an Federal Aviation Administration statement issued before the bodies were recovered.
Before it went down, the aircraft changed direction from west to east and descended. Teams found the bodies in the Huntsville area, near Arkansas 23 and Madison County Road 5320.
Williams owned the Williams Construction company and donated land for the local Centennial Park.
“They were special people. […] Adina was so kind and loving. […] I’m just so sick for the family,” Oklahoma state Sen. Rick Brinkley describes for Tulsa World.
“They did a lot of (good) things for people that nobody knew about. […] They enjoyed life and their children,” Barbara Hawkins, Pryor Chamber of Commerce president, adds.
The plane is registered to A&I Leasing LLC of Pryor, but it was owned by the victims. The FAA database “has not been updated due to the backlog from the government shutdown, so it still has the name of the previous owner,” the organization's website reads.