2 killed in Jefferson County, Kansas plane crash

JEFFERSON COUNTY, Kansas - According to flight logs, the man and woman on board were heading to St. John's, Arizona. Though, they only flew about 50 miles before the plane crashed. The flight lasted less than 30 minutes.

The Beechcraft F33A took a nose dive just minutes after taking off from Kansas City's Charles Wheeler Downtown Airport.

50 miles into the trip, the pilot put out a distress call, saying the engine had stopped.

Pilots had conversations with other pilots and air traffic controllers to try to help the pilot in distress, “You may want to relay to your distressed airplane that if he's looking for the airport, there's a smoke stack."

Air traffic controllers did what they could but the engine troubles were too much. Jefferson County's sheriff said the plane appeared to hit nose first and then roll.

The impact crushed the front of the plane killing couple Greg Collis and Pindi Williams-Collis of Pompey, New York.

According to the Post Standard newspaper in Syracuse, Greg Collis had flown for two decades. The pair was heading to Arizona for the holiday weekend.

Witness Mike Jamison describes what happened, “The plane tried to make a turn to the west, to avoid maybe the trees or find a better place to go down."

In the end, a Jefferson County hay field was as far as Greg Collins' plane would go.

Jamison continues, “As soon as he did that, it maybe started to come up, but then it went down just right away."

“My hired man went up to the plane. The guy was unresponsive at the time and he didn't see the passenger,” Jamison says, “Because the pilot was apparently lying on the passenger. We didn't know there were two people in there."

The FAA and the NTSB are investigating. However, it may be months before they release why the engine stopped and how the crash happened.

The couple owned and operated a group home business for adults in the Syracuse area.

The receptionist at that business told NBC Action News they had 'no comment' on the matter Thursday afternoon.

FlightAware tracks the plane's path from Kansas City to Williamstown.

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