GREENVILLE PLANE CRASH CLAIMS FOUR

GREENVILLE -- Search crews found pieces of an older model Cessna airplane and the bodies of its passengers about noon Friday near upper Wappapello Lake. No one survived the crash.

The small plane crashed into the banks of the St. Francis River near Greenville and burned on impact, authorities said. All four passengers were killed.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the cause of the crash.

The victims were identified as William C. Rayburn, 44, Joyce Rayburn, 67, Tom Rayburn, 74, and Aline Rayburn, 13. All were from Louisiana but authorities were unsure of their relation.

The plane, which had refueled at West Memphis, Ark., before the crash, was en route to St. Louis.

"They were all very nice," Tabitha Craig said of the passengers. Craig works as a receptionist for the West Memphis Jet Center. The group, flying in an old plane, planned to attend an antique airplane show in St. Louis, she said.

The single-engine plane was last seen on radar at 11:15 a.m. Thursday as it flew over Greenville. A thunderstorm was passing through the area at the same time.

After a massive ground and air search, the plane was located by the Missouri Water Patrol. Additional pieces of the plane and the victims' bodies were found on a hill above the lake.

Dozens of people in the Greenville area reported hearing the airplane engine sputter followed five seconds later by a large thump or boom sound, said Kent Bowman, Wayne County Emergency Management director.

"It made an awful racket, like it was cutting out," said Thelma Brooks, a Greenville resident who lives near the crash area. Brooks didn't hear the actual crash but saw a plane flying low near her home. It flew so low that it shook the windows in her mobile home, she said.

No one saw the plane go down and heavy rains Thursday hampered the search efforts. About 100 people from several law enforcement agencies were involved in the search, Bowman said.

Some information for this story was provided by the Associated Press and Southeast Missouri News Service.