At about 1530 Eastern time, the airplane crashed in an open field. Visual conditions prevailed. The airplane incurred substantial damage. Two of the passengers were killed, the pilot and a third passenger received serious injuries. The flight was receiving flight-following services from ATC. The last radar contact was at 1528, at an altitude of 1900 feet msl and a groundspeed of 87 knots. There were no distress calls received by ATC. The pilot subsequently reported cruising at 3000 feet msl when the airplane developed an unspecified engine problem and stopped about two minutes later. The pilot saw an open field and elected to make an off-field landing on it. The airplane cleared the adjacent trees to the open field but contacted utility wires and crashed into the open field inverted.
