Yes, this will shake up the election, but it's also tragic.
The wife of Doug Butzier confirmed Tuesday morning to KCRG-TV that it was Butzier who was killed in a plane crash Monday.
Butzier is running for U.S. Senate as the Libertarian candidate against Republican Joni Ernst and Democrat Bruce Braley.
The crash was reported Monday night near Dubuque Regional Airport.
"I was just sitting in there watching TV and all that I heard was an airplane going vrrrmmm -- boom! Blew up, came up and seen big ole flames on the neighbor's yard," plane crash witness Jeremy Becker told KCRG-TV.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford said the Piper PA-46 crashed around 11 p.m. Monday on approach to the airport, about a mile north of the runway.
Lunsford said law enforcement told him the sole occupant of the aircraft was killed in the crash. Lunsford said the plane took off from Ankeny Regional Airport about an hour before the crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash.
Butzier's campaign website said he grew up in Cedar Falls and graduated from the University of Iowa. He is an ER doctor and medical staff president at Mercy Medical Center in Dubuque.
My heart goes out to his family.
