Chesterfield Man, Daughter, Die in Plane Crash in Wildwood

A 41-year-old man from Chesterfield and his 7-year-old daughter have died in a small plane crash this morning when their plane went down in the Howell Island Conservation Area in Wildwood before daybreak.

St. Louis County Police spokesman Randy Vaughn identified the crash victims as Shiv Patil, 41, and his daughter Sonia, 7, of Chesterfield. The county revenue department lists a home under that name in the 1300 block of Wildhorse Parkway Drive in Chesterfield.

He was a doctor specializing in internal medicine with affiliations at SSM St Joseph Health Center-Wentzville, SSM St Joseph Hospital West, St Joseph Medical Center and St. Lukes Hospital of Kansas City.

Vaughn said the National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA had crews on the way to follow up on the investigation of the crash.

The pair were killed when their Cirrus SR-22 single-engine aircraft went down around 5:10 a.m. into Howell Island.

The plane had left from Spirit of St. Louis Airport in Chesterfield shortly before 5 a.m. and crashed soon after sending a distress call at 5:10 a.m.

A nearby resident reported hearing a loud crash in the area West of Spirit Airport. The plane went down just West of Spirit Airport several hundred yards into the wood-line on Howell Island leaving a large debris field, police reported.

Vaughn said the cause of the crash had not been determined, but authorities had reports of "heavy, heavy fog" in the area. He said Patil's initial destination was somewhere in Texas for refueling, but that he was intending to continue to somewhere in Arizona.

KMOV reports that emergency crews say the aircraft didn't clear the tree line as it approached the levee.