2 dead after Minnesota plane crashes in Florida

WILLMAR, Minn. – A plane reportedly owned by a Spicer, Minn., businessman crashed in a residential neighborhood in Florida Tuesday night, Dec. 27, killing both people on board.
According to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office in Florida, the 2009 single-engine Epic LT plane crashed in heavy fog just before 6 p.m. in a front yard in the Spruce Creek Fly-In community of Port Orange, Fla.
The plane narrowly missed two houses.
No one on the ground was injured but two people in the plane were killed.
The names of the victims have not been yet released but according to a story published in the Dayton Beach News-Journal, an Epic aircraft with the Federal Aviation Administration registration of N669WR left Willmar on Tuesday and after stopping in Tennessee was scheduled to arrive at Spruce Creek at 5:58 p.m.
That experimental plane is reportedly owned and manufactured by Independent Technologies, which lists Daryl Ingalsbe as the owner and CEO.
Besides having a residence in Spruce Creek Fly-in, Ingalsbe also has a home in Spicer.
Earlier this year, the West Central Tribune featured Ingalsbe in an article about a 21-day trip around the world where he flew his fixed wing, single-engine turboprop Epic airplane – along with his partner and New London businesswoman, Deb Solsrud – with two dozen other aviation enthusiasts.
Named the “Odyssey,” the trip was the first of its kind to incorporate experimental aircraft and included other owners of Epic planes as well as a documentary film crew. That trip, which was expected to be recognized by Guinness World Records, began July 7 and included stops in 21 cities in countries on three continents.
In a post to the Facebook page, the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office said a witness who reported the crash said he saw the aircraft fly into the fog and that the plane was “in an inverted flat spin when he came out of the fog.”
Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson told the News-Journal it looked like the plane stalled or came down in a spin.
"It came pretty much straight down," Johnson said. "It appears as though it barely missed two houses."
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.