Riverwoods Plane Crash: Pilot, 2 Passengers Dead In Suburban Chicago (VIDEO)

Updated story

A small plane transporting a medical patient from West Palm Beach, Florida, to the Chicago area crashed Monday night in northwest suburban Riverwoods, killing the pilot and two of the plane's four passengers.

John Bialek, the 80-year-old patient, of suburban Streamwood, and his wife Ilomae, 75, died in the crash, the Chicago Tribune reports. William Didier, 58, the pilot, from Cedar Grove, Wis., also was killed.

The twin-engine Piper Navajo plane went down around 10:50 p.m. near Portwine and Orange Brace Roads, about five miles south of its destination, the Chicago Executive Airport in Wheeling, Ill.

When emergency responders first arrived at the scene shortly after the plane went down, they discovered the crashed plane was on fire, ABC Chicago reports. They put out the fire and pronounced two people, reportedly the pilot and the patient's wife, dead on the scene. The three others were transported to hospitals, one of whom, reportedly the patient, died en route.

Prior to the crash, the pilot had been in contact with air traffic controllers and reported a fuel problem, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The plane was registered to Trans North Aviation Limited in Eagle River, Wisc.

John McGuire, who owns the home whose backyard the aircraft went down in told ABC the crash "sounded like wind, shear 60-80 mph wind." The crash occurred a mere 50 feet from his home.

No injuries were reported on the ground and the National Transportation Safety Board has begun an investigation into the incident.

On Saturday, the Chicago area was home to yet another fatal small plane crash, when four people were killed after a small, single-engine Cirrus plane went down in far north suburban Crystal Lake.