PLANE OWNED BY JACKSON COMPANY

The pilot and a passenger in a twin-engine airplane were killed Thursday when the plane crashed in south-central Pennsylvania. The plane belonged to a Jackson motorcycle wholesaler.

As of late Thursday night, authorities had not identified the two victims.

The six-seat Beechcraft Baron was owned by Motorcycle Stuff Inc., a company owned by Jim Dodd of Cape Girardeau. The company supplies parts to motorcycle shops nationwide.

Todd Rowland, who operates a Cape Girardeau motorcycle shop and formerly worked for Motorcycle Stuff, said Thursday that he was aware that Dodd and one of Dodd's employees, Rex Pettit of Cape Girardeau, had flown east on a business trip.

Rowland said Dodd was an avid pilot.

Motorcycle Stuff has warehouses in several states, including California and Florida, Rowland said.

The plane, bound for Cape Girardeau, crashed about 10:15 a.m. about two miles north of the borough of Denver, just north of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, authorities said.

The airplane left Reading, Pa., Regional Airport at 10:06 a.m., officials said. It crashed a few minutes later in a heavily wooded area about 19 miles southwest of the airport.

Rescue crews located the wreckage about 11:30 a.m. It was scattered across about a 100-yard area, about 500 yards north of a farmhouse. Area residents said it appeared the pilot was trying to land the plane in a hay field.

It was raining at the time of the crash. Duncan Pardue, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman, said the plane took off in steady rain from Reading airport and that shortly after takeoff the pilot asked for permission to land at Harrisburg International Airport.

However, the pilot was told Harrisburg had too much traffic and he was told to return to Reading, Pardue said.

Local residents who saw the small plane go down said it was flying low and suddenly seemed to lose power and plummet to the ground.

Elvin Groff, 13, was cleaning out the garage of his home when he saw the plane go down. "I heard a whining noise and I saw it go straight down to the ground."

Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press and the Intelligencer Journal newspaper in Lancaster, Pa.