A rural St. Clair County couple died Saturday in a North Carolina plane crash.

Joseph and Patti Kreher of Freeburg were on their way to visit family on the east coast for the Thanksgiving holiday when their plane went down in Winston-Salem, N.C., according to the Winston-Salem Journal.

Joseph had been a pilot for many years. 

The airplane, a Piper PA-30 Twin Comanche, crashed shortly after 11 a.m. 

A federal investigator told reporters the pilot had alerted the control tower at Smith Reynolds Airport that he was having engine trouble. 

The plane crashed while circling for a second attempt at landing.