STAFFORD, Va. (AP) - A single-engine plane carrying four basketball fans home from a Wake Forest game crashed while attempting to land in thick fog, killing all four, authorities said Thursday.

The plane had been cleared for approach at about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday but never reached the runway at Stafford Regional Airport, said FAA spokeswoman Arlene Murray. Searchers discovered the wreckage Thursday morning about 500 yards away.

The victims were identified as pilot Richard L. Potter, 49, Albert "Buck" Jacoby, 56, Graham Green III, 57, and Michael Pappas, 47, all of the Fredericksburg area.

The plane, a Columbia 400, was registered to Fredericksburg-based Homeowner Title LLC. Potter is listed as the principal owner, according to state records.

The cause of the crash was under investigation. The plane had been diverted to the Stafford airport because of the weather, state police Sgt. F.L. Tyler said. Tyler said the pilot appeared to have tried to abort his landing and veered into the trees.

Stafford is about 10 miles northeast of Fredericksburg and 40 miles southwest of Washington, D.C

Bless their souls... *taps*

VFR pilot's worst nightmare...

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Who says this guy wasn't? Even an IFR flight might be diverted due to bad weather, if winds or visibilty render the intended destination unusable.
This happens more often to IR pilots than one might suspect... very sad; he got so close, apparently.

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Don't more people get killed in auto accidents than in aircraft accidents?

Everybody will get into a auto accident, but not everyone who flies get's into an aircraft accident

One reason its safer to fly than drive is because I can drive, but I cant fly.
But yes, a very unfortunate event.

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Don't have figures to quote here, but I've heard that statistically flying light aircraft is about 7 times more likely to lead to a fatality (in terms of crashes per trip, per year) than traveling by car. The number of deaths on the road is higher only because many more people travel by car than by air, including airline flights.
BUT: many people die behind the wheel due to someone else's negligence- this is rarely the case in flying. Most flying crashes occur due to continued flight into wx beyond the capability of pilot and/or airplane. Next is stall/spin accidents in the pattern; again the pilot's fate lies in his or her own hands. Midairs account for a high percentage too, but  in that case, even if someone is not where they should be, both pilots have to fail to see each other, generally speaking. The root cause of these fatalities has to be considered when comparing auto crashes to plane crashes.
Personally, I feel safer up there than I do on the road, and as for statistics: since most people have died home in bed than anywhere else, it may be assumed that statistically the most dangerous thing you can do is lie in bed...

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Google image search came up with this...
http://www.aopa.org/images/expo/2004/virtual/static/LancairColumbia300.jpg

Kind of sickening really.  4 people I knew where killed in a crash late last year.  Happened as they were returning to Wabash after a day out    The pilot owned the aircraft. He was the one I had planned to get lessons from when I got the money

Seems to have been a lot of small aircraft crashes lately.  Both fatal and not.

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And then we couldnt have wing mounted achine guns and cars would be obsolete