Small Plane Crash in Wisconsin’s Sauk County Kills Multiple People, With Up to Six Believed Aboard

A small plane crashed in the Town of Dellona in Sauk County, Wisconsin, on the night of Tuesday, October 13, 2026, and multiple people aboard were killed, the Sauk County Sheriff’s Office said. The aircraft went down near Park Lane, between Reedsburg and Wisconsin Dells.

The sheriff’s office has not said how many people were on board, what type of aircraft it was or where it was flying. The FAA and the NTSB have been notified and will assist in the investigation.

What the sheriff’s office has confirmed

According to a statement from Sheriff Chip Meister, the Sauk County Dispatch Center received multiple reports of a downed aircraft near Park Lane at about 9:31 p.m. When deputies and emergency crews arrived, they found the aircraft with multiple people involved, and multiple people were confirmed dead.

The sheriff’s office said the scene remains secured while investigators work out the circumstances of the crash. Lake Delton police, the Delton Fire Department, Dells/Delton EMS, the Sauk County Coroner’s Office and the Wisconsin State Patrol assisted at the scene.

The number aboard is still an estimate. Sheriff’s Capt. Matt Burch told WKOW that authorities believe five to six people were on the plane, but that the count had not been confirmed.

Burch also told the station that witnesses had seen a low-flying plane and that neighbors were already searching the area when deputies arrived. He said no homes were damaged and there were no victims outside the aircraft.

NBC 26 reported early Wednesday that authorities say everyone on board died. The victims had not been identified at the time of writing on the morning of October 14.

Where it happened, and the weather nearby

Dellona is a rural town of about 1,900 people in northern Sauk County, northwest of Madison. Two public airports sit close by: Reedsburg Municipal Airport is about 6 miles (10 km) southwest of the town’s center, and Baraboo-Wisconsin Dells Regional Airport is about 8 miles (13 km) to its southeast.

Neither airport has been linked to the flight. Baraboo-Wisconsin Dells has a 5,010-foot paved runway and no control tower, and Reedsburg’s longest runway is 4,840 feet.

Several outlets reported that it is unclear whether weather played a role, and no official has said it did. The automated weather station at Baraboo-Wisconsin Dells did record storms moving through the area that evening.

At 9:35 p.m., four minutes after the first calls, the station reported a thunderstorm in the vicinity with broken cloud at 6,000 feet and 10 miles of visibility. By 9:55 p.m. it was raining, visibility had dropped to 7 miles, the cloud base was down to 4,600 feet and distant lightning was reported to the east.

Those readings describe conditions at the airfield, about 8 miles from Dellona, not at the crash site. Whether the plane met any of that weather, and whether it mattered, is for investigators to establish. Flying a light aircraft at night adds its own demands, as our guide to how pilots see at night explains.

What happens next in the investigation

The National Transportation Safety Board will look for the cause, and the sheriff’s office says the FAA will also assist. Under the NTSB’s party system, other organizations, such as the aircraft and engine manufacturers, can be named as parties to the probe.

The FAA posts short statements on accidents that give the aircraft type and the number aboard, but it had not posted one for the Dellona crash when we checked on Wednesday morning.

The NTSB generally expects a preliminary report within about 30 days of a fatal crash. That report summarizes the facts gathered so far, but it does not name a cause.

The probable cause comes in the final report, and the NTSB says it generally aims to finish an investigation in 12 to 24 months. Another recent Wisconsin case followed that pattern: the NTSB’s preliminary report on the Lake Wausau Bonanza ditching was filed on October 13, a month after the September 12 accident, and stated no cause.

Crashes like this one are where most of America’s aviation deaths happen. On NTSB preliminary figures, none of the 321 people killed in US civil aviation accidents in 2024 died on a scheduled US airline, as our look at how often planes crash details.

The sheriff’s office has asked anyone with information about the crash to contact it. AeroCorner will update this story when the aircraft and the victims are identified.