Cancer Patient Dies in Plane Crash After Doctor Visit

A twin-engine plane that went down in Upstate New York on Friday was an Angel Flight carrying a veteran who was fighting cancer, his wife, and the volunteer pilot returning them from a medical appointment in Boston, reports the AP. The patient and his wife—who haven't yet been named—died in the crash, and officials are still searching near the town of Ephratah today for the body of the pilot. The couple seemed happy, says the pilot who flew them up to Boston. "We were both former Marines and had been in Vietnam pretty close together in time," he said. "We hit it right off. He was a nice guy."

NTSB investigators are looking for phones or other electronics that could "give the investigators some electronic evidence of what happened in the last minutes of flight," says a spokesman. Wreckage was scattered over a 5-mile area, and most of the plane landed in a pond. There was no distress call, though witnesses said the aircraft was clearly in trouble. "We looked up and saw the plane flipping in the air. Then it fell apart," says one. "Parts and pieces of it were flying through the sky, and a body fell out." (More plane crash stories.)