Two Onboard Lost In Central MN Crash

ANN REALTIME UPDATE 10.25.07 0000 EDT: Damn. Late Wednesday night, officials with the Todd County Sheriff's Department confirmed the bodies of a missing University of North Dakota flight instructor and her student were recovered from the wreckage of their downed Piper PA44 Seminole.

KARE-11 reports an air crew from the Minnesota Wing of the Civil Air Patrol found the wreckage near Turtle Creek Township at approximately 1610 local time.

Lost in the crash were 22-year-old flight instructor Annette Klosterman, and junior aviation student Adam Ostapenko, 20.

The two were on a VFR instructional flight from St. Paul, MN to Grand Forks, ND Tuesday evening, when the plane went down.

Original Reports

10.24.07 2130 EDT: Officials confirm search crews have located "a plane" in a swampy area of central Minnesota, but will not say whether or not the wreckage is that of a missing Piper PA44 Seminole belonging to the University of North Dakota.

"We have found a small plane in our county," Todd County dispatch supervisor Bob Cuchna told KARE-11 Wednesday evening. "It is in a swampy area, northeast of Browerville."

The aircraft was discovered at approximately 1630 local time Wednesday.

Browerville is located more-or-less along the planned flight path of the missing aircraft, which departed St. Paul Tuesday evening en route to Grand Forks.

1400 EDT: A search is underway for a University of North Dakota aircraft with two people onboard. The Piper PA44 Seminole twin disappeared Tuesday night, on a routine flight from St. Paul, MN to Grand Forks.

The Seminole (type shown above) departed St. Paul just before 2130 local time Tuesday night, UND spokesman Peter Johnson told the Grand Forks Herald.

Onboard the plane are UND flight instructor Annette Klosterman, and student Adam Ostapenko.

Last reported contact with the aircraft was at 2215 CDT, when controllers in Minneapolis spoke with the pilots as the Seminole was in the vicinity of St. Cloud, MN. The FAA sent out a search notice early Wednesday morning, when the pilots failed to close their flight plan.

"What (the notice) does is alert airports and sheriffs and local law enforcement on the path ... and asked them to start looking," FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said.

The Civil Air Patrol dispatched five planes to search along the aircraft's projected flight path, and a ground search was conducted off all airports between St. Cloud and Grand Forks Wednesday morning.

FMI: www.aero.und.edu, www.cap.gov