Local Man Killed in Plane Crash

Dwight Van Zanen, a part-time resident of West Columbia, died Monday when the small airplane he was piloting crashed in North Carolina, according to WSOC-TV in Charlotte.

Van Zanen crashed in a small, experimental, kit-made airplane shortly after takeoff from the JAARS-Townsend Airport in Union County, N.C. near the town of Waxhaw, according to the report. Van Zanen, who was flying alone, crashed into a stand of trees.

The two-seater plane (pictured above), which was constructed by a previous owner in 2002, is known as an Avid Mark IV Speedwing.

Van Zanen, a retiree, moved part-time to West Columbia in 2011. He was a member of the Experimental Aircraft Association's local chapter 1467, which is based at the Gaston Airport.

Van Zanen shuttled the plane back and forth from a home in Washington state and his home in West Columbia, according to his personal page on the EAA Web site. The online biography also mentions that the married father of four was a cancer survivor who had served more than 30 years in firefighting, serving as a fire chief in Maple Valley, Wash., and Vista, Calif., before moving to South Carolina.