Four Connecticut people die in small plane crash in Vermont

A small plane crashed in Vermont near an airport in Ferrisburgh, killing all four people on board, police said Monday.

Vermont State Police have recovered bodies from the wreckage of the four-seat, single-engine Piper plane that crashed Sunday in a wooded area near Basin Harbor Airport. The victims were all from Connecticut. They were identified as Paul Pelletier, 55, of Columbia, Frank Rodriquez, 88, of Lebanon, Susan Van Ness, 51, of Middletown, and Delilah Van Ness, 15, of Middletown.

The plane took off from Connecticut’s Windham Airport around 8:30 a.m. Sunday for a roughly two-hour flight to the Ferrisburgh airport, police said. The plane landed and the four arrived for a brunch reservation at Basin Harbor, a resort on Lake Champlain. They left the restaurant shortly after noon to fly back to Connecticut and a witness reported seeing the plane on the runway around 12:15 p.m., police said.

When the occupants did not return to Connecticut as expected, relatives contacted the police.

Police in Middletown, Conn., notified Vermont State Police late Sunday. Investigators found the wreckage overnight.

The bodies of the victims have been brought to the Medical Examiner’s Office to conduct autopsies to determine the cause and manner of death, police said.

The accident is under investigation.

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