Passenger identified in plane crash

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Authorities have confirmed a passenger killed with a Birmingham neurosurgeon after the plane he was flying crashed into the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida Panhandle was his wife.

Mike Gurspan, public information officer for the Walton County Sheriff’s Office in Florida, tells The Birmingham News the woman was positively identified as 52-year-old Margaret “Peggy” Shook Zeiger.

Medical examiners had previously identified Zeiger’s husband, Birmingham neurosurgeon Dr. Evan Zeiger Jr., as the pilot of the World War II fighter trainer airplane. The Zeigers were flying in a formation with other airplanes Saturday afternoon when the plane crashed into the Gulf of Mexico, about a mile off the Florida Panhandle beach.