West Virginia Plane Crash Claims Six From Chicago Area

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Feb 2, 2009 4:30PM

Six Chicago area residents, including four members of the American Polish Aero Club of Chicago, died Friday when their small Piper PA-34 plane crashed near Kenova, West Virginia. According to other members of the club, the members who died in the crash were Kazimierz Adamski (Morton Grove), Wieslaw Dobrzanski (Niles), Irenevsz Michalowski (Des Plaines), and Stanislaw Matras (Chicago). Also on board were Monika Niemiec, a reporter for a local Polish radio station, and her father, Stanley Niemiec. The plane had left McHenry County and was headed for a stopover in Charlotte, North Carolina before heading to Clearwater, Florida when the crash happened Friday afternoon. A thousand people attended a memorial service yesterday at St. Constance Catholic Church and friends and family members gathered at the club to remember their loved ones. As of yesterday afternoon, officials in West Virginia had still not identified who was on board, but the names were released by the club. [Trib]

AP Photo/Randy Snyder