JUNCTION CITY, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas community is in mourning after a prominent businessman, his wife and their four children were killed Thursday when their small plane crashed into a swampy area of central Florida.
The plane was heading home to Junction City from the Bahamas when it broke apart and went down.
The single-turboprop, fixed-wing aircraft crashed at about 12:30 p.m. in the Tiger Creek Preserve, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office in Florida.
“It’s just a horrific loss,” Junction City Mayor Pat Landes said.
Deputies reached the area by helicopters, but it was clear there were no survivors, the sheriff’s office said. The cause of the crash wasn’t immediately known, and parts of the plane were found more than three miles away, investigators said.
Ron Bramlage, a businessman in Junction City who owned Roadside Ventures LLC, was piloting the 2006 Pilatus Pc-12/47. The 45-year-old, his wife, Rebecca, 43, and the couple’s children — Brandon, 15; Boston, 13; Beau, 11; and 8-year-old Roxanne — were killed.
Landes said the couple supported many local projects and provided college scholarships. The family was well known in town and at Kansas State University, where the basketball arena is named for Ron Bramlage’s grandfather.
At least two dozen bouquets of flowers lined the black wrought-iron fence surrounding the family’s ranch-style home by Thursday evening.