Livingston, LAA small plane with three people on board crashed into a wooded area late Friday night in eastern Louisiana. Rescue workers reportedly had a hard time getting to the plane crash site and were disappointed when their hope for a search and rescue became instead a search and recovery.
No one in the small plane survived.
The victims were identified as Tabitha Dolbare, 39, of Vancleave Mississippi, Glen Ray Johnson, also 39 of Gautier La., and their 13-year-old son Nelson Dolbare, also of Vancleave.
The Cessna 182 was registered to Tabitha Dolbare.
According to the Livingston Parish Sherriff's Office, the plane was en route to Marksville, Louisiana from Slidell when it went down just before midnight Friday in a wooded area west of Independence La. near the town of Albany. Reports indicate there was a fair debris field, and that the plane was a 'total wreck.'
Just before midnight Friday the airport at Baton Rouge reported losing contact with the pilot. The Livingston Parish Sherriff's Office was alerted, which in turn launched a massive search effort from the air, and on the ground.
However, reports from area residents helped narrow the location of the crash site down for investigators. The Sherriff's office was inundated with calls overnight from concerned residents who reported hearing a loud, eerie crashing sound in the area between Independence and Albany.
"It sounded like a very low aircraft," witness Brandy Goodwin told reporters. "But it was loud, very loud."
Those reports led investigators to a muddy, heavily wooded area where the wreckage of the plane, and the remains of the victims were ultimately discovered.
"It's a total wreck, pile of debris, just a tremendous horrific site," said Livingston Parish Sheriff Willie Graves.
It is not known what caused the plane to crash. Reports have suggested that weather did not play a factor, although given the time of day the plane would have encountered darkness. Involved in the investigation is the local Sherriff's office, as well as the Office for Homeland Security, the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.
No one would speculate as to what might have brought the stricken plane down.