Bodies identified in Eden Prairie plane crash
The Hennepin County medical examiner's office has identified the two people who were killed in a plane crash in Eden Prairie yesterday.
Wayne Roland Monson, 53, of Hibbing, and Rivka Chayka-Lev, 29, of Apple Valley, died in the crash.
Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said the plane had left the Flying Cloud Airport in Eden Prairie Wednesday when it turned around, tried to return to the airport and crashed.
Witnesses told investigators the plane failed to gain much altitude.
Monson had requested permission to perform a few landings and takeoffs Wednesday before heading to Osceola, Wis., said Pam Sullivan, a senior air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board.
Sullivan told the Star Tribune newspaper that a female student pilot, now identified at Chayka-Lev, was also in the 1958 twin-engine Beechcraft 18. She did not confirm that Monson was flying the plane but said that Chayka-Lev would not have been qualified to fly the plane.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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