(FRANKENMUTH TOWNSHIP) — Federal officials are looking into a small plane crash that killed a mid-Michigan pilot and his grandson. Local authorities have turned their investigation over to the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board. Killed in Sunday evening’s crash were 55-year-old Eugene Root of Millington and 9-year-old Samuel Simon. The plane went down in a Frankenmuth Township field near William Zehnder Field, southeast of Saginaw. It burst into flames on impact. Frankenmuth police Chief Donald Mawer has said it appears the pilot was practicing landing and takeoff maneuvers. National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Terry Williams says no witnesses saw the actual crash and no one “witnessed anything unusual in terms of takeoff.”
