Polk County Plane Crash Autopsy Results Released

BARTOW, FL - Autopsies conducted Wednesday on four passengers killed in an airplane crash at the Bartow Municipal Airport on Sunday found that the victims died of blunt force trauma, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office. All of the deaths were ruled accidental.

Findings of the autopsy of John Shannon, pilot of the Cessna 340, will be released when toxicology tests are complete, the sheriff's office said. The 70-year-old Shannon, an experienced pilot and a prominent Lakeland attorney, was flying the plane to Key West on Christmas Eve with his two daughters, his son-in-law and a family friend.

The small twin-engine plane took off about 7:15 a.m. Sunday heading east, into heavy fog. For unknown reasons, but likely related to the fog, the plane crashed shortly after takeoff, according to the sheriff's office. The National Weather Service was reporting that visibility in the area at the time of the crash was less than a quarter-mile because of fog.

The passengers were identified as: Shannon's two daughters, 24-year-old Olivia Shannon, a Southeastern University student, of Lakeland and 26-year-old Victoria Shannon Worthington, a Baltimore school teacher; Worthington's husband, 27-year-old Peter Worthington, Jr., a third-year law student at the University of Maryland; and family friend, 32-year-old Krista Clayton, a Lakeland school teacher at Jewett Academy. The Worthingtons arrived in Lakeland from Baltimore on Saturday for the holidays.

Image via Polk County Sheriff's Office