Plane crash kills four

by PAUL MORTON

Associate editor

Federal investigators continue to search for the cause of a plane crash at the Lorain County Regional Airport on Monday, Jan. 18, that killed a Vermilion couple and two pilots.

Don Brown, 89, and his wife, Shirley ,87, of Vermilion were killed when their plane went down far short of the runway at the airport on Russia Road in New Russia Township. Pilot Wesley Roemer, 30, of Gainesville, Fla., and John Mengelson, 46, of Florahome, Fla., were also killed.

The plane went down shortly after 2 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 18, crashing in a field inside the fence surrounding the airport, but several hundred feet from the runway. Robert Tallhamer, who lives near the airport, said he saw the plane approaching the airport from the west, far lower than normal.

"It was about 50 yards above the ground," Tallhamer said. "I was watching it, then it disappeared behind my house."

Although the weather was foggy that day, investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration and the Federal Transportation Safety Board said they did not believe the fog was responsible for the crash. The highway patrol, Lorain County Coroner's office, the Lorain County sheriff's office, Lorain County Emergency Management, the Oberlin Amherst, and Carlisle Township fire departments, LCRA security, Civil Air Patrol, LifeCare Ambulance Service, and the Lorain County MetroParks were all the scene late Monday.

During the week, investigator moved the wreckage of the plane, piece by piece, into a hangar at the airport. There they tried to reconstruct the crash to determine what happened to cause the crash.

Don Brown was known as an inventor, possibly best known for his invention of the drop ceiling. He and his wife were returning from a Christmas holiday in Florida.