An Antioch man and his teenage daughter have been identified as the victims killed in a small plane crash in southern Wisconsin Sunday.
An Antioch man and his 14-year-old daughter were killed when their plane crashed as it approached a small airport just north of the Wisconsin-Illinois border, according to police and relatives.
The victims were identified by the family as Todd Parfitt, who just turned 50, and Nicole Parfitt, 14.
A single-engine Grumman plane registered to Parfitt crashed about 1:25 p.m. Sunday as it approached the airport in Burlington, Wis., about 20 miles north of the state line, officials said. Both victims were thrown from the plane, they said.
“The preliminary information is that it crashed while attempting to land,” said Lynn Lunsford, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.
Lunsford said the Burlington airport has no control tower, and the pilot was not in contact with air traffic controllers when the plane went down in a cornfield.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were at the airport today, according to Burlington Municipal Airport officials. The plane wreckage will be taken into a hanger so investigators can inspect it, an official said.
James McKay, superintendent of Community High School District 117, said Nicole was a ninth-grader at Antioch High School.
“She was a very active student. She was a member of the dance team. Many, many kids know her in other ways.”
Counselors are at the school today helping students grieve and cope with the news, he said.
The principal of the school said many students were wearing purple today, the color of the freshman class and Nicole’s favorite color. The dance team, about 30 to 40 kids, and their two coaches were meeting with counselors.
“Evidently, it’s a pretty emotional meeting,” said Principal John Whitehurst, adding that the hallways were “eerily silent.”
A Facebook page was created Sunday in honor of Nicole.
"They may have not made it to the runway that they intended, but they did land safely in heaven," one message reads.
Bailey Walker, who called herself a best friend of Nicole, said in a post: "Nicole, I love you so much. I will never forget all of our inside jokes and all of the times you made me laugh. How much I loved hanging out with you and just talking to you when I was upset made me feel so much better. You just knew how to cheer people up and you were always such an amazing person."
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Antioch dad, daughter killed in Wisconsin plane crash
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