Three people dead in crash of small airplane southwest of Minneapolis

VICTORIA, Minn. (AP) — A relative has identified three people killed in the fiery crash of a small plane in southeastern Minnesota as a surgeon from Omaha, Nebraska, and two of his family members from Wyoming.

Jo Mertes, of Mantador, North Dakota, told the Star Tribune Sunday that her nephew, 42-year-old Jacob Mertes and his 37-year-old wife, Sara Mertes, of Libby, Montana, died along with her nephew’s 72-year-old stepfather, Dr. James Edney, who was piloting the plane. There were no survivors.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane was flying from Alexandria Municipal Airport to Eden Prairie’s Flying Cloud Airport before 6 p.m. Saturday when it went down and burst into flames in Victoria, a city of 7,300 about 25 miles southwest of Minneapolis.