Maxwell’s wife, Vicki Maxwell, died in the crash.
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The sheriff’s office is working around the clock to gather as much information as possible, Lewallen said, but hasn’t yet sat down to put it all together.
“There is very little we know right now,” Lewallen said.
The aircraft left Venice Municipal Airport in Venice, Fla., on Tuesday morning and was bound for Grimes Field in Urbana, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Arlene Salac said.
A rescue team was sent to search in the area around midnight Wednesday after the couple’s daughter, Erin Patton, notified authorities that her parents’ plane hadn’t arrived.
Their Beechcraft 35-A33 Debonair aircraft crashed in a wooded area near Helenwood, Tenn., and was found at 8 a.m. Wednesday, Salac said.
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Patton, an Urbana insurance agent, said Thursday that her family is still trying to figure out what happened and was in Tennessee. Funeral arrangements are pending, she said, and will be private.
Patton declined further comment at this time.
The crash happened about two miles from Scott County Airport, Lewallen said, a sign to him that the couple might have been attempting to land there when they crashed.
“I suspect they were trying to get to it,” Lewallen said.
The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the cause of the crash, Salac said.
No severe weather was reported Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, Lewallen said, so that’s likely not a major factor.
“Tuesday was pretty weather,” Lewallen said.
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Also flying with the couple was their dog. Lewallen said the family pet is in stable condition and at the sheriff’s office.
David Maxwell is the director of respiratory services at Grandview Medical Center, according to his LinkedIn profile. A picture of a lit cross at Grandview Medical Center in Dayton was posted on Facebook. The post says the cross was lit in honor of the Maxwells.
St. Paris United Methodist Church also posted their sympathies to the family on Facebook.
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