BURLEY, Idaho (AP) - The wreckage from a small plane crash in Idaho that killed a family of four from California was so badly burned that authorities were able to recover only a wingtip and the engine, federal transportation safety officials said Monday.
Family members identified the victims of the plane crash as 42-year-old Randy Whittle, his wife Vicki Whittle, 46, and their children, 16-year-old MacLean Whittle and 13-year-old Brittany Whittle, all of Claremont, Calif., according to a statement released by Idaho authorities. Vicki Whittle was the sister of Glen Webb of Jefferson City.
The four were visiting family in Oakley, Idaho. That town is about 20 miles south of the airport in Burley, Idaho, where the plane crashed Sunday, according to a statement distributed by Burley city administrator Mark Mitton.
Investigators don't know where the plane was headed when it crashed and it may take a day or two to determine its registration number, Peter Knudson of the National Transportation Safety Board told KTVB-TV.
The aircraft is believed to have been a Cessna 210 based on the type of engine and number of propellers, said Jeff Rich, chief of the western pacific region for the National Transportation Safety Board.
"It's burned down to ash. Even identification of the aircraft was based on some circumstantial evidence," Rich told The Associated Press. "There's nothing left but a wingtip and the engine."
The plane went down Sunday afternoon near the runway at the Burley airport, in south-central Idaho.
It is believed to have crashed immediately after taking off and clearing the 4,000-foot runway, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.