GRAND MEADOW, Minn. (AP) -- The pilot killed in the crash of a single-engine plane in southern Minnesota was identified today as a man who had just bought the aircraft in Wisconsin.

The Mower County sheriff's office says 54-year-old Phillip Ray Edgington, of Sanger, Texas, bought the 1948 Cessna 140 in New Richmond, Wisconsin, on Friday.

Edgington was flying the plane solo to Missouri, with a stopover planned in Iowa, when it went down early yesterday in a bean field near Grand Meadow, about 25 miles southwest of Rochester.

Edgington's family called authorities after he became overdue. A search began about 2 a.m., and the wreckage was found around 9 a.m. yesterday.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

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