Four Plane Crash Victims Identified

(Greensburg, Ind.) - The names of the four people killed when a private airplane crashed near Greensburg Sunday night have been released.

A PA-46 Piper Malibu crashed about 1.5 miles south of the Greensburg Municipal Airport. An eyewitness first reported the crash at 6:19 p.m. The plane was eventually discovered near the Decatur County Fairgrounds, just off County Road 200 West.

“It appears there was some impact in a field and the plane came to a rest on a hillside in a wooded area,” said Greensburg Police Capt. Bill Meyerrose.

Donald Horan, 46, owned the plane. He and his wife Barbara, 44, as well as friends Steve Butz, 45, and his wife Denise, 42, died when the plane went down. They were all residents of Decatur County. Donald Horan owned a Greensburg business called Collection Associates.

A spokesperson for the Horan family says the crash victims leave behind six children.

“It is with much heaviness of heart that I announce that God has called four of our loved ones home. They leave behind six beautiful children who are hurting and grieving over the loss of our parents,” said Brian Wenning, asking that the family members be given privacy.

The group was returning from a weekend trip to Destin, Florida.

The cause of the plane crash remains under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.

Meyerrrose said the airstrip’s lights – usually turned on via radio by the pilot – were never activated, but it’s unclear if that played a role in the crash. Weather at the time of the crash was fog with misting rain, he said.

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Four Killed When Plane Crashes In Greensburg