WILLISTON, Fla. – A vintage, single-engine airplane that crashed at the Williston Municipal Airport, killing four people southwest of Gainesville, went unnoticed for nearly a day.
Williston Deputy Police Chief Clay Connolly confirmed that Nathan Enders, his wife Laura and their two sons, Jaden and Eli, died in the crash, according to WSB-TV in Atlanta. The family of four lived in Williamson, just southwest of Griffin.
Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen told WSB-TV that Nathan Enders was an air-traffic controller who worked at the FAA Terminal Radar Approach Control in Peachtree City.
The Gainesville Sun reported that the 1948 Cessna 170 "Tail Dragger" crashed Saturday afternoon along the tree line at the north side of a taxiway, but wasn't noticed until Sunday.
Connolly told the newspaper that the plane, which is registered in Texas, crashed on takeoff Saturday afternoon.
Between 20 and 30 other aircraft took off from the airport after the crash, but no one noticed the wreckage for 21 hours. Connolly says the Cessna was equipped with an emergency locator transmitter that should have been noticed by other pilots.
The National Transportation Safety Board continues to investigate, but spokesperson Keith Holloway said it could take authorities several months to determine what caused the crash, WSB-TV reported.