The six-seat, single-engine plane was traveling from Kenosha to Menomonie when it crashed in a wooded area near Mirror Lake State Park in the Town of Dellona shortly before 10 p.m., authorities said. Rain was falling as a thunderstorm moved through the area.
The National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday that the plane was flying at 24,000 feet when the pilot reported icing and requested to descend. Air traffic control approved the descent, and the plane began a right descending turn that increased in rate until communications and data tracking were lost, the NTSB said.
The sheriff's department said it received multiple reports of a downed aircraft around 9:30 p.m. Five adults and one child who were traveling in the plane were found dead, the sheriff's department said.
Police said the fixed-wing Piper PA-46 airplane contacted a nearby air traffic control tower before the crash. Investigators were reviewing those transmissions and whether weather played a role in the crash, the sheriff's department and the Federal Aviation Administration said.
Police said there wasn't any damage to structures or anyone on the ground. The names of those killed were not immediately released.
The FAA and NTSB are investigating.
