SNOW HILL - Authorities have identified the couple killed in the crash of a small plane in North Carolina.

Greene County Sheriff Lemmie Smith said Friday that Mark Sobel and his wife, Joan Wilson, were killed when their plane went down in a farm field near a residential area near Snow Hill, about 20 miles southwest of Greenville. Sobel and Wilson were both 56.

Smith said the couple listed Estero, Fla., as their home address but were flying to their home in Connecticut when the crash occurred Thursday afternoon.

Sobel and his wife were flying home to South Windsor, Conn., said South Windsor Mayor Matthew Streeter, who knew them for 20 years. The couple also lived in Florida for several months a year, Streeter said.

"They were well-known in the community," Streeter told WFSB-TV in Hartford. "When you have kids in the community, when you're active in the community, I think it's going to be a shock to the town."

North Carolina officials say the pilot reported he had ice on the wings before the plane disappeared from radar and lost radio contact.

Streeter said Mark Sobel was a pilot. The Federal Aviation Administration Web site indicates the plane was a Lancair IV-P, a home-built, amateur plane.