Olympic distance runner Pat Porter among 3 dead in Sedona plane crash (VIDEO)
Two-time Olympic distance runner Pat Porter, his son and his son's friend are dead following a fiery plane crash in Sedona, Ariz., his wife told The Associated Press.
Porter was piloting the twin-engine Beech B-60 when it burst into flames and crashed on takeoff Thursday morning.
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An FAA database showed the plane was registered to Porter. Also killed in the crash were Porter's 15-year-old son Connor and 14-year-old Connor Mantsch, who attended Albuquerque Academy with Connor Porter in Albuquerque, NM, Trish Porter told Albuquerque TV station KOAT.
Trish Porter said her 53-year-old husband and the boys had been in Sedona for three days before the plane went down.
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The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board were investigating the crash, the Arizona Daily Sun reported.
Pat Porter, a former 10,000-meter Olympian and 13-time distance runner national champion, married Olympic high jumper Trish King in 1991 after the two met during a pre-Olympic training camp for the 1988 Seoul Olympics, according to Trish Porter's website.
The couple moved to Albuquerque in 1994.
Dismayed friends and running enthusiasts remembered Pat Porter as an amazing distance runner.
"I'm just still in shock, I really am. He was a mentor for track and field and really cross-country," Stan Hockerson, the owner of Heart and Sole Sports, told KOAT.
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