A University of Chicago student and her parents lost their lives in a plane crash at a downstate airport over the weekend.
Morgan Buerkett, 19, and her father, Jon Buerkett, 56, and mother, Dana Buerkett, 47, were taking off in a Piper PA 46 plane in Rantoul Sunday morning, the Chicago Tribune reports.
The family planned to fly to Florida so Morgan, a U of C volleyball player, could attend training camp, Dennis Buerkett, Jon’s Buerkett’s brother, told the Chicago Tribune.
The single-engine plane took off, crashed on the airport grounds and engulfed into flames before 9:30 a.m., said Roland Herwig, an Oklahoma-based FAA spokesman.
A local TV station reported that severe weather moved through the area at the time.
The family lived in Champaign.
