Five members of a family from Georgia tragically lost their lives in a plane crash that occurred on July 1, 2024, in upstate New York. The victims were identified as Roger Beggs (76), Laura VanEpps (43), Ryan VanEpps (42), James R. VanEpps (12), and Harrison VanEpps (10).
The family had been attending a baseball tournament in Cooperstown, New York, before the incident. The plane they were traveling in, a single-engine Piper Malibu Mirage, was headed to Cobb County International Airport in Atlanta with a fueling stop in West Virginia when it crashed near Sidney.
Roger Beggs had been a licensed pilot for ten years and was allowed to fly single-engine planes. The cause of the crash is currently under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
The family members were discovered after a multi-agency search involving drones, helicopters, and ATVs. Their remains were found near Lake Cecil Road in Masonville.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp expressed his deepest condolences to the loved ones of the Beggs and VanEpps families.
The incident serves as a reminder of the importance of safety during air travel and highlights the need for thorough investigations into plane crashes to ensure that similar incidents do not occur in the future.