South Dakota Plane Crash Leaves No Survivors

A South Dakota plane crash over the weekend left no survivors, officials say, due to heavy winds and fog. The plane was piloted by 30-year old Donald “DJ” Fischer, who had brought three ot...
South Dakota Plane Crash Leaves No Survivors
Written by Amanda Crum
  • A South Dakota plane crash over the weekend left no survivors, officials say, due to heavy winds and fog.

    The plane was piloted by 30-year old Donald “DJ” Fischer, who had brought three others from Texas to complete a cattle sale. While authorities have not released the names of the deceased, the funeral home confirmed the deaths of Brent Beitelspacher and Logan Rau; the fourth victim has not been identified.

    “This is one of those things that’s going to hit the community pretty hard, because I would venture to say there are probably are not many people here who D.J. didn’t touch their life in some way,” state Rep. Corey Brown said.

    The wreckage was found at the South Dakota Wind Energy Center, having crashed into at least one of the turbines there due to low clouds and fog that created reduced visibility. An FAA spokesperson said the investigation into exactly what caused the crash could take weeks or months.

    Steve Stengel, a spokesman for NextEra Energy, Inc. said the weather is hampering the investigation near the wind turbines and that they haven’t been able to check out the damage yet.

    “It’s been so foggy up there and we haven’t had a chance to investigate,” Stengel said.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

    Get the WebProNews newsletter delivered to your inbox

    Get the free daily newsletter read by decision makers

    Subscribe
    Advertise with Us

    Ready to get started?

    Get our media kit