Authorities ID two people killed in small plane crash at Salem Airport, give details

(Update: Police ID victims; federal investigator gives initial info)

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Federal authorities are investigating the crash of a small plane near the end of the runway at the Salem Municipal Airport that killed two people.

Police say representatives of the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were at the airport on Sunday investigating the crash that killed 66-year-old Daniel McKenna and 61-year-old Cynthia McKenna of Boring, Oregon on Saturday.

According to police, witnesses said the plane had been trying to land when it crashed.

 The NTSB said it was investigating the crash of what it said was a Beech K35 aircraft.

NTSB investigator-in-charge Michael Hicks told reporters at the airport Sunday afternoon Daniel McKenna was the pilot who had taken off from and was attempting to land at the airport, the Statesman Journal reported.

He was doing "pattern work," a routine aviation operation where the pilot holds in the airport's traffic pattern, in rectangular fashion, Hicks said. He took off from Runway 34 and made a left. Somewhere between the base leg an final leg, something went "awry," Hicks said. Though the pilot was in contact with the tower, did not report any emergencies, he said, and weather was not a factor.