ARBOR VITAE, Wis. (AP) — Three men, including two from the Milwaukee area, died when their single-engine plane crashed near the Lakeland Airport on a trip to the north woods for a weekend getaway, the Vilas County coroner said Friday.

The victims were ages 61, 50 and 40, Coroner Paul Tirpe said. No names will be released until today because relatives still need to be notified, he said.
The plane, a Cirrus SR22 owned by the Chicago area charter service BlueSky Taxi, crashed early Thursday night about a half-mile southwest of the airport.

“It appeared that it was trying to land and may have missed the first approach and was coming back for a second one,” said Lt. Gary Peske, of the Vilas County Sheriff’s Department. “There was kind of a misty rain. I don’t know if weather was a factor in it.”

Tirpe said the pilot was from Chicago, where the flight originated. The plane landed in Milwaukee to pick up two passengers.

One of passengers owned a cottage at Star Lake, and the men were flying to northern Wisconsin to enjoy a long weekend, Tirpe said.

Telephone messages left at BlueSky Taxi were not immediately returned Friday.

Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board investigators were at the scene of the crash Friday, Tirpe said.

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