4 people killed after small plane crashes in Illinois, officials say
The single-engine plane crashed at around 10:15 a.m. on April 19 in a field in Trilla, an unincorporated community in Illinois, state police said.
A small plane with four people on board crashed into a field in rural Illinois on the morning of April 19, authorities said.
All four people died in the crash, Illinois State Police said in a statement to Paste BN. The single-engine plane crashed at around 10:15 a.m. local time in a field near a roadway in Trilla, an unincorporated community in south central Illinois, according to state police.
"The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are still investigating the cause of the crash," state police said in a news release. "The aircraft remained in the roadway with the roadway closed until approximately 5:00 p.m. on April 20, 2025."
State police identified the victims as Ross Nelson, 46; Raimi Rundle, 45; Courtney Morrow, 36; and Michael Morrow, 48. All four victims were from Menomonie, Wisconsin, and were pronounced dead at the scene.
The plane was a Cessna 180, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The agency said the crash occurred southeast of Coles County Memorial Airport in Mattoon, a city of over 16,000 about 80 miles southeast of Springfield. It was not immediately clear what caused the crash.
"My administration is monitoring the situation as we keep those impacted by the plane crash in our thoughts today," Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said on social media April 19. "Thank you to the first responders who rushed to the scene."
Illinois crash comes amid worries over aviation safety
Several crashes involving small planes have made headlines in spring 2025, although data shows such crashes are typically much more common than commercial airline disasters.
On April 18, three people on board another Cessna 180 were killed when it crashed into a river in Nebraska. And six people died after a Mitsubishi MU-2B crashed in upstate New York on April 12, about a day after three other people died when a small plane lost control and crashed onto a busy street in Boca Raton, Florida.
Other recent aviation accidents have made national headlines as well. On April 10, a New York City tour helicopter crashed, killing all aboard. Five people were injured after a small plane crashed into a body of water at an Oregon airport on April 7. In late March, a small plane crashed into a suburban Minneapolis home.
These incidents also follow several high-profile crashes in 2025 that have sparked scrutiny over aviation safety in the U.S. Though experts have maintained that aviation remains extremely safe, fatal incidents have raised concerns about flying.
Data from the NTSB shows that overall, aviation accidents were down from 2023 to 2024.
NTSB investigators are still probing two deadly crashes that occurred in late January: the midair collision of an American Airlines passenger plane and U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter near Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people; and a medical jet crash in Philadelphia that killed seven.
(This story has been updated to add new information and to correct a misspelling/typo.)
Contributing: Jeanine Santucci and Zach Wichter, Paste BN; Steven Spearie, Springfield State Journal- Register