The Nebraska State Patrol Saturday identified the four men killed aboard a small plane that crashed in a Lincoln County field Friday afternoon.
The patrol confirmed that 54-year-old Mark Bottorff of Lancaster, Kansas was piloting the plane when it crashed about 13 miles northeast of Maxwell. The others killed were 71-year-old Ken Babcock of Hiawatha, Kansas; 39-year-old Jason Drane of St. Joseph, Missouri and 53-year-old Chris Nelsen of York, Nebraska.
Bottorf owned Bottorff Construction, an Atchison, Kansas concrete contractor. He and the other victims did business together.
Authorities lost contact with the twin-engine plane about 10 minutes after it took off from North Platte Regional Airport at 3:46 p.m., on its way to York Municipal Airport, about 170 miles to the east.
