A couple and their five young children were killed when the small plane the father was piloting crashed in western Alabama during a trip back from a family reunion. Hit the jump to read the rest of the story.
@WiL

Fred Teutenberg, 42, was flying with his wife, Terresa, and their five school-age children from St. Louis to their home near Destin, Fla., on Saturday night when the right engine on his Cessna C421 suddenly blew out, officials said.

“He radioed in to Meridian, Mississippi’s airport. He was calling mayday, mayday and they answered him and he told them he was having engine failure,” Marengo County, Ala., coroner Stuart Harold Eatmon told the Northwest Florida Daily News.

“That was at 8:10 and 8:15…and then they lost him. I think that’s when his plane completely quit.”

Teutenberg tried to make an emergency landing at Demopolis Municipal Airport in Alabama, but the plane crashed into some woods and caught fire, officials said.

All seven people aboard were killed.

Eatmon identified the couple’s children as Will, 10; Brendon, 9; Ellie, 6; Peyton, 4; Emma, 2. Terresa Tuetenberg was in her mid-30s.

Eatmon said relatives told him the family was hurrying back on Saturday night so they could make it to church on Sunday.

Helicopter search crews discovered the wreckage just two miles from the airport at around 2:20 a.m. on Saturday.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were investigating the cause of the engine failure.

Friends in the Teutenberg’s hometown of Niceville said they were a close-knit family who gathered at their local Methodist church every Sunday to watch their father play bass guitar with the band.

“He not only played with our band, he played with other church bands elsewhere,” church member Bob Webb told the newspaper. “He told me one time he even toured a while. So he had a lot of interests.”

Fred Teutenberg owned an IT company and coached two middle-school soccer clubs in the area, while his wife ran a preschool day care center.

“It’s a big loss to the community,” another friend added.

The family was survived by Ashlei Bruewer, 16, Terresa Teutenberg’s daughter from a pervious marriage.

“Every single one of the kids was bright and always laughing,” the teen said in a statement to The Destin Log. “My mom was always smiling and extremely caring. My stepdad was a great dad and was always helping people in any way he could.”

DN