Bucklins reach settlement over small plane crash that killed four

The family of a Minneapolis man who crashed his plane with three of his sons on board in 2010 has reached a legal settlement with air traffic controllers.

Luke Bucklin founded the Bloomington-based Internet business, The Nerdery. He was flying home from a family trip to Wyoming when his plane disappeared. An investigation found he'd been flying too low, but also found that the flight plan he got from controllers included an altitude too low to clear the Wind River mountains.

Bucklin's family sued the private company providing air traffic control and the FAA over the fatal flight.

"When he was on the runway, the wind changed and so the air traffic controller said you need to depart to the south, and then gave Luke a new route to follow," said attorney Mark Hallberg. "The controller said this is the accepted route and gave him an altitude to fly. Luke never knew that that route was not safe."

Bucklin and his sons Nate, Nick and Noah were killed in the crash. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

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