Pierce County airplane crash victims identified

BAY CITY, Wis. (WEAU) - The names of the two people killed in a plane crash in Pierce County Tuesday have been released by law enforcement.

The Pierce County Sheriff’s Office said 28-year-old John Zeman and 20-year-old Ethan Smith, both from Rochester, Minn., died when the experimental aircraft they were flying crashed into a field about a half mile west of the Red Wing Regional Airport near Highway 35.

According to a release, the plane left Rochester at 12:20 p.m. Tuesday for a training flight to the Red Wing Regional Airport in Bay City. Authorities found the crash at 1:39 p.m. Tuesday. The two men were the only occupants of the plane.

The crash is being investigated by the National Traffic Safety Board, and the investigation will take several months to complete, the Sheriff’s Office said. The NTSB said the crash involved a Glasair Super II SFT aircraft and confirmed on Twitter it was investigating the crash.