Dellona, United States: Six people, including one child, were killed when a six-seat, single-engine Piper PA-46 crashed in a wooded area in the Town of Dellona, Sauk County, Wisconsin, on the night of October 13, 2026. The aircraft was operating a flight from Kenosha, Wisconsin, to Menomonie, Wisconsin, when it went down near Mirror Lake State Park, about 10 miles west of Wisconsin Dells.
The Sauk County Sheriff’s Office said its dispatch center received multiple reports of a downed aircraft at about 9:30 p.m. local time. Emergency personnel located the wreckage in a densely wooded area near Park Lane, west of Herwig Road. Five adults and one child were found dead at the scene. Authorities have not released their identities or ages pending notification of relatives.
The Federal Aviation Administration identified the aircraft as a Piper PA-46. Sheriff Chip Meister said the aircraft was not a commercial plane, but authorities had not publicly identified its owner or operating company. The aircraft was on what authorities described as a return trip from Kenosha to Menomonie.
The National Transportation Safety Board said the aircraft was flying at approximately 24,000 feet when the pilot reported icing on the wings and requested permission to descend. Air traffic control approved the descent. The aircraft then entered a right-hand descending turn that progressively increased in rate before communications and flight-tracking data were lost. The NTSB has not determined that icing caused the crash.
Weather conditions were also being examined. Rain was falling as a thunderstorm moved through the Town of Dellona at the time of the accident. The Sauk County Sheriff’s Office and FAA said investigators were reviewing the aircraft’s communications with air traffic control and determining whether weather conditions contributed to the crash.
Sheriff Meister confirmed that the aircraft had been in contact with an air traffic control tower before the accident. “We know that they had contact with the tower prior to the crash,” Meister said, adding that investigators were examining the nature of that communication.
The sheriff’s office said there was no damage to structures and no one on the ground was injured. The crash site was secured while investigators began documenting the wreckage and collecting evidence.
The response involved the Sauk County Sheriff’s Office, Lake Delton Police Department, Delton Fire Department, Dells/Delton EMS, Sauk County Coroner’s Office and Wisconsin State Patrol. The FAA and NTSB were notified, with the NTSB taking the lead on the federal investigation.
NTSB investigators are examining flight-track information, air traffic control recordings, the aircraft’s maintenance records, information about the pilot and other evidence to establish what happened during the final stages of the flight. The agency has said its on-scene investigation will not determine the cause of the accident. A preliminary report is expected within 30 days, while the final investigation and probable-cause determination could take substantially longer.
The identities of the six people killed and the aircraft’s confirmed owner or operating company had not been publicly released by authorities as of October 15, 2026. The cause of the crash also remains under investigation.
