5 members of family visiting NY for baseball tournament killed in small plane crash

Five members of a family from Georgia who were visiting Cooperstown, New York, for a baseball tournament died when their small plane crashed in a rural part of the state, authorities said Monday.

The single-engine Piper PA-46 crashed around 2 p.m. Sunday after taking off from Albert S. Nader Regional Airport in Oneonta, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.

The wreckage of the plane and the remains of the five people on board were found Sunday night in the town of Masonville, the New York State Police said in a news release.

The multiagency search involved drones, helicopters and all-terrain vehicles, the police said.

The victims were identified as Roger Beggs, 76; Laura VanEpps, 43; Ryan VanEpps, 42; James VanEpps, 12; and Harrison VanEpps, 10.

The family was returning to Georgia after attending a tournament in Cooperstown, the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame, police said.

The plane was headed to Cobb County International Airport in Atlanta with a fueling stop in West Virginia when it crashed, the state police said.

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash.

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