A pallor of grief, shock and disbelief hovers over Napoleon and Holgate following the tragic airplane crash on Saturday in Bowling Green that took the lives of four young men.

The single engine Piper Cherokee 140 was only airborne a few minutes after taking off from the Wood County Airport Saturday morning, when it plunged into the Frazee Avenue apartment, located on the edge of the Bowling Green University campus.

All four aboard the plane were killed instantly when it exploded on contact with the apartment complex.

Wood County Coroner Roger A. Peatee identified the deceased as David P. Lankenau, 23, the pilot, plus passengers Michael P. Cochran, 18, and Richard C Baker, 19, Napoleon, and Jeffrey R. Diemer, 21, Holgate.

The plane had originated its flight from the Henry County Airport earlier Saturday morning and stopped to pick up Baker at the Wood County Airport before the crash The four men were en route to Columbus for the weekend, where Cochran was to meet with Ohio State University swimming coach Richard Sloan.

All four men were prominent athletes at Napoleon High School. Lankenau was a defensive end on the undefeated 1976 NHS football team. Diemer was a track star on the 1979 NHS track team. Baker was a guard on the 1981 Class AA state basketball championship team. Cochran was the leading scorer on the 1980 state championship and 1981 state runner-up champion water polo teams, as well as an outstanding swimming team star at NHS, and was due to graduate from NHS this month.

Lankenau and Baker were enrolled at BGSU. Diemer was attending Northwest Tech., and Cochran was signed up as a freshman for this fall at OSU.

The airplane was owned by Mike Jacobs, airport manager and fixed base operation owner at Henry County Airport, and was leased to Eagle's Nest Aviation, Napoleon.

With the necessary amount of fuel required for the flight to Columbus, Jacobs had limited the number of people aboard to three when it departed the Henry County Airport Saturday morning.

Coroner Peatee reported that the police had stated that the plane was overloaded and stalled alter departing the Wood County Airport.

Bowling Green Fire Chief Howard Ritter said, "We have some eyewitnesses that say the plane was fluttering when it came down, and it landed on the building sideways.

Eyewitness Jenny Worley, a BGSC student from Lima, told the Associated Press, "I was watching it go overhead, and it was low, really low. The engine was sputtering, like it was missing. It just didn't sound right. It wasn't running like they normally do. It seemed to be fighting for altitude “

Wood County Airport Manager William (Hoot) Gibson said he had conversed with Baker defore the plane picked him up. The plane did not refuel nor file a flight plan at Wood County Airport because of the perfect weather. Gibson said he did not hear any peculiar noises when the plane took off.

Federal Aviation Administration flight examiner Raymond Heyde said the FAA was conducting a preliminary inquiry. An official ruling of the cause of the accident is not expected to be released for some time.