Susanne Hilgefort, 48, Michael Mydlarz, 50, and Lisa Marie Quinn, 48, dead, and Jason Klein injured in fiery small-plane crash near airport in Esperance, New York

Officials say three people were killed when their small plane crashed in upstate New York.

The Federal Aviation Administration says the single-engine Piper PA-28 crashed about 6:45 p.m. Saturday in a heavily wooded area and was destroyed by fire.

The plane was taking off from Hogan Airport in the town of Esperance when it crashed about 1,000 feet from the facility, Desmond said. He said it's believed the plane was headed for Connecticut.

Hilgefort was MLB's senior director of broadcasting business affairs. Her baseball career started in 1994, when she was hired to work for The Baseball Network. She started as a personal assistant and rose to become MLB's senior manager of broadcasting, then its senior director of distribution development, according to the website.

The single-engine plane Hilgefort and Mydlarz were in crashed into a wooded area soon after taking off from a private rural airport. A third person died, while a fourth is in a New York hospital burn unit.

Jason Klein, president and CEO of Force3 Pro Gear located at 155 New Haven Ave., is the creator behind the “Defender.” The mask, featured in Connecticut Magazine's June issue, found its way behind the plate earlier this year when Atlanta Braves catcher Tyler Flowers became the first Major League Baseball player to wear the innovative new equipment.

Matthew Coltrain, a coroner in Schoharie (skoh-HAYR'-ee) County, identified the victims Thursday as 50-year-old Andrew "Mike" Mydlarz and his wife, Susanne Hilgefort, both of Stamford, Connecticut, and 48-year-old Lisa Marie Quinn of New York City.  

According to the NTSB, several witness accounts, which the officials said were consistent, said that during the takeoff, the aircraft's nose wheel lifted off and then settled back onto the private airfield's runway. The nose wheel lifted again and the airplane became airborne.

Witnesses said the plane overflew a hangar at the departure end of the runway "at a very low altitude" as it began a left turn. A Federal Aviation Administration radar track indicated what appeared to be the plane climb to about 100 feet above