DOVER, Del. (AP) - A pilot who was killed when his single-engine airplane crashed into some trees in Dover has been identified as Dr. Clifford Turen, an orthopedic trauma surgeon.
Turen worked at Bayhealth Medical Center, which confirmed his death on Monday. He also spent 20 years at Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore.
The wreckage of his Piper Cherokee aircraft was found Sunday night after a search that lasted more than two hours in a wooded strip along a farm field just south of White Oak Road east of Dover.The plane had disappeared from radar amid heavy fog, and the pilot made an emergency call to traffic controllers at Dover Air Force Base. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the crash.
The Wilmington News Journal reports that Turen left an airport in Sandersville, Georgia shortly after 2 pm on its way to Summit Airport in Middletown.
Around 5:42 pm Turen apparently made two landing approaches at the Salisbury Airport, but did not land.
Instead, he headed north to Delaware.
The paper reports that there is no information on why Turen changed his flight plan or what brought down the plane.
