Plane crash kills 4 Hoosiers Friday

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- A single-engine plane carrying four Indiana residents on their way to a South Carolina vacation crashed just northwest of Savannah, Ga., killing all four people.\nGreg and Marianne Moser, who owned a race car axle business, Moser Engineering, in Portland, Ind., died in Friday's crash.\nAlso killed in the crash were Moser Engineering plant manager Jeff Bickel, 48, and his wife, Eileen, Moser marketing director Jon Bennett told the Indianapolis Star. Local officials have not released the identity of the victims.\nThe home-built plane, a Lancair IV, registered to Moser Aviation of Portland, Ind., left the Portland (Ind.) Municipal Airport and crashed about 6 p.m. EDT in rural Allendale, S.C., said National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Paul Schlamm.\nThe plane had left Portland, Ind., and was heading to Beaufort, S.C., which is about 50 miles from Allendale.\nBennett told the Star that the foursome were on their way to Beaufort for a vacation. "Though they traveled a lot for business, this was for leisure, to get their minds off business," he said.\nThunderstorms were moving through the area about the time of the crash, said National Weather Service spokesman Ron Stevens.\nNo severe thunderstorm warnings had been issued for Allendale County at the time of the crash, but there were warnings in adjacent Colleton County, he said.\nAllendale County Fire Chief Rodney Stanley was one of the first to arrive on the crash site, which was in a wheat field less than a mile from the city of Allendale.\n"I'm not sure exactly what took place or what happened. I know we were having a thunderstorm during the time the plane went down," Stanley said. "The main compartment where the passengers were was all right there in one area, but it was a lot of damage to it."\nAllendale County Assistant Fire Chief Walter Griffin said "it appears that it broke up before it came down."\nStevens said the weather service issues warnings for surface conditions and the weather could be more severe at higher elevations.