Bramlage Family

Officials have found the body of a 13-year-old Kansas teen, a day after his family perished in a Lake Wales plane crash.

In a Friday afternoon news conference, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said officials with the Fish and Wildlife Commission located the body of Boston Bramlage, 13, at around 2:20 p.m. in thick brush nearly a half-mile from the crash site.

"Our searchers today searched as if it had been own child, and remained here until he was found," Judd said, who credited rescue workers with an "exceptionally quick recovery."

"Fortunately the recovery occurred sooner rather than later. It was very important for us to reunite this family for their sakes, and for the sakes of other family members."

The bodies of pilot Rob Bramlage, a Kansas businessman, his wife and three of their four children were found at the crash site.

Earlier Friday, Judd said he believed the missing boy may have been thrown from a hole in the plane as it began to break apart.

Rob Bramlage said he had an emergency shortly before the single-engine turboprop plane broke into pieces and went down Thursday afternoon in swampy Tiger Creek Preserve.

The plane, a 2006 Pilatus PC-12/47, was at an estimated altitude of 21,500 feet when it began having problems, said Tim Monville, a senior air safety investigator in Miami with the National Safety Transportation Board.

Monville said the pilot didn't specify the nature of the emergency.

The aircraft dropped from radar and lost communications with controllers in Miami shortly before it went down about 12:30 p.m., Monville said.

Monville said it was too early to determine if weather was a factor.

Heavy rain has pounded the region for several days. Monville said he was waiting on data from weather and air traffic experts in Washington, D.C.

"The main goal is to determine what happened and why," he said, adding that the investigation could take up to a year.

Parts of the plane separated before the crash and there was a rupture in the cabin area while it was in the air, officials said.

Sheriff Judd said the debris field stretches at least four miles. Portions of the left wing, about six feet of the right wing and the horizontal stabilizer were some distance away from the site, Monville said.

A fire also broke out after the crash, he said.

The crash site is in a remote, wooded and uninhabited area of southeast Polk and was reachable only by helicopter and all-terrain vehicle.

Detectives are still searching the crash area, the sheriff's office said.

Rain hampered the aviation search-and-rescue efforts Thursday.

"It's cleared up some today," Judd said. "We're able to put helicopters back in the air, and that's why were finding even more pieces of debris as the day goes on."

The sheriff's office is handling the investigation into the deaths, while the NTSB and Federal Aviation Administration will look into the crash.

The Bramlages were heading to Grand Junction, Kan., from the Bahamas when problems with the plane arose. The aircraft had taken off Thursday morning from Treasure Cay Airport in the Abaco Islands and stopped for customs in Fort Pierce.

It departed from Fort Pierce at 12:05 p.m. and crashed about a half-hour later, officials said.

Records showed the plane was carrying Bramlage,45, his wife, Rebecca, 43, as well as their four children, Brandon, 15; Boston, 13; Beau, 11; and 8-year-old Roxanne. Witnesses in the Bahamas and Fort Piece accounted for all four children on the aircraft, Judd said.

"It is a tragic event of monumental proportions," Judd said.

"Our heart breaks. You have no idea what it is like to see a mother, a father and a group of beautiful children deceased in an aircraft. And it's fortunately something a majority of the world will never see."

The Bramlages were well known in their hometown, where they supported many local projects and provided college scholarships. The arena at nearby Kansas State University is named for Ron Bramlage's grandfather. A library in the city is named for Ron Bramlage's grandmother.

The aircraft was owned by Ronald Bramlage's company, Roadside Ventures LLC, of Junction City.


Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.