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Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com

Published - Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Green Bay man killed in Stevens Point plane crash

STEVENS POINT, Wis. (AP) — A veteran pilot from Green Bay was among two people killed when his single-engine plane crashed shortly after taking off from a Stevens Point airport, his family said today.

Dean McGinn, 56, was on vacation Monday and had flown to Stevens Point for no particular reason, his wife, Therese McGinn, said. ``They were enjoying the day.''

McGinn's son, Tony, said some problems developed just after the plane took off from the Stevens Point Municipal Airport and the plane was circling to land when it crashed about 5 p.m.

The son did not know who his father's passenger was.

Dean McGinn learned to fly in the Navy in the late 1970s and bought the 1971 Piper about two years ago, Tony McGinn said in a telephone interview from the family's home in Green Bay.

It was the first plane his father owned, Tony McGinn said.

Dean McGinn was a UPS driver, an accountant and had a landscaping business, his son said. He also flew with the Civil Air Patrol, he said.

Federal Aviation Administration investigators were expected at the scene of the crash this morning, spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said.

Portage County Coroner Scott Rifleman said the victims were being taken to Madison for autopsies today. He declined to name the passenger, saying official identification had not been made.