4 from central Indiana die in Virginia plane crash

SHELBY COUNTY, Ind. (WISH/AP) – Four victims of a Virginia plane crash Friday are from central Indiana.

The Virginia State Police have identified the central Indiana residents who died in the crash as 52-year-old Lisa Borinstein, 19-year-old Luke Borinstein and 15-year-old Emma Borinstein, all from Shelbyville. The pilot was 64-year-old William Hamerstadt of Carmel.

Robert Ross, 73, of Louisville, Kentucky, and Maren Timmermann, 15, of Berlin, Germany, also died in the crash.

Chris Hoke, superintendent of the Northwestern School District of Shelby County, released the following statement:

It is with profound sadness and a heavy heart that we announce having received official notification of the victims of the tragic accident in Fredricksburg, Va. It has been confirmed that victims of the fatal crash include:

Emma Borinstein – TCHS sophmore, Luke Borinstein – Triton Central graduate, their mother Lisa Borinstein and Maren Timmerman  – TCHS junior.

As we pull together as a community to work through this tragic event, we will be offering grief counseling over the next several days to our students and staff. Triton Central is a close knit community and we rally around the families and each other in the wake of this tragedy. The full breadth of our school campus and resources will be made available to the families and our community, as we begin the healing process together.

Hoke said that grief counseling will be available at school facilities.WITNESSES DESCRIBE CRASH

Shocked witnesses on a train going by the crash site saw the plane in flames and said it had been completely destroyed.

Police said the aircraft departed from Louisville, Kentucky Friday morning, but did stop in Shelbyville as it continued to Fredricksburg, Virginia.

The plane came to the end of the runway at the Shannon Airport near Fredericksburg and then pulled back up, flying to the end of the airport property, State Police Spokeswoman Corinne Geller said in an email. It struck the tree line, crashed and immediately caught fire.

All six people killed were from out of state and their bodies will go to the chief medical examiner’s office in Richmond for positive identification, Geller said.

Tanya Aquino of Washington was on an Amtrak train to Richmond when the train stopped. A conductor first said there was a fire, then said there had been a plane crash.

The train rode past the crash site and Aquino said she saw flames, smoke, several rescue vehicles and the remains of the plane just beyond the tree line.

“When I heard there was a fire, it was such a hot day, I was hoping it was just a brush fire,” Aquino said. “It looked so terrible the way the plane had landed.”

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.

Shari Acree, who was also on the train, said she saw white smoke and the crash.

“The plane was completely decimated and there was still some flame coming from it,” Acree said in an email.

The airport has an average of 85 flights per day, mostly local general aviation. Ninety-one aircraft are based there, most of them are single-engine.

Police said the aircraft crashed just before 12:30 p.m. FridayThe Associated Press contributed to this report.