Update: Bushnell pilot identified in Texas plane crash

Corpus Christi, Texas -- Four people including a pilot from Sumter County were killed Monday in a small plane crash some 70 miles west-southwest of Corpus Christi, the FAA said tonight.

The pilot has been identified as Paul Mazak of Bushnell.  The names of his three passengers have not been released.

The FAA said the Beechcraft turboprop was on a flight from Uvalde, Texas to Leesburg, Florida when it went down in a wooded area on a ranch. 

The FAA said the pilot had notified air traffic control he was at 25,000 feet and was having trouble maintaining a steady altitude due to strong storms.  The plane then dropped off the radar.

The plane is registered to Mazak Properties, Inc., of Webster, Florida.

A helicopter from the Texas Department of Public Safety located the wreckage on a ranch in an area 3 miles north of Benavides, Texas.  The area is described as heavily wooded with 12-foot tall mesquite trees.

Texas state troopers have secured the site until the arrival sometime Tuesday morning of investigators from the Federal Aviation Authority and the National Transportation Safety Board.