MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A small plane flown by a descendant of one of the brothers who built the renowned Mayo Clinic crashed at a southern Minnesota airport, killing all four people aboard.
Dr. Chester W.P. Mayo, an orthopedic surgeon, was taking his eldest son, 17-year-old Chester Mayo Jr., back to boarding school when the plane crashed at the Faribault airport Sunday night. The names of the other two victims were not immediately released.
The four-seat Cirrus SR22 plane burst into flames on its second landing attempt and scattered debris across the airfield.
Authorities were trying to figure out why Mayo had to make a second attempt to land, said Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory. Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board were also at the crash site Monday.
The FAA said the plane had left from Aberdeen, S.D., where Mayo worked at Orthopedic Surgery Specialists.
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"There will be a lot of patients in that South Dakota area that will miss (him)," said his brother, Dr. Joseph Mayo, in a telephone interview Monday.
Joseph Mayo, an orthopedic surgeon in Placentia, Calif., said he and Chester learned to fly airplanes before they were old enough to drive cars.
"He's an incredibly careful, well-trained pilot. He had his instrument rating," Joseph Mayo said. "It wasn't all that exciting flying with him, because he was always worried and concerned and double checking and all that."
Chester W.P. Mayo, 51, was a descendant of the Mayo brothers who formed the famed Mayo Clinic in Rochester four generations ago. The archives of the Post-Bulletin in Rochester show he grew up in Rochester in the Mayo family mansion, called Mayowood. He did his orthopedic surgical residency at the Mayo Clinic after earning his medical degree at the University of Minnesota.
The Cirrus SR22 is a popular model of small plane known for its parachute system, designed to lower the plane and its passengers to the ground in an emergency.
Kate Dougherty, spokeswoman for the plane's manufacturer, Cirrus Design Corp. of Duluth, said the company could not comment while the NTSB investigation took place.
"Our thoughts and prayers are really with the family," Dougherty said. "We try very, very hard to keep this from happening."
Since 2002, the SR22 has been involved in 17 accidents resulting in 35 deaths, according to the NTSB.
