Couple who fell sick in plane die

A Melvin Village couple, each of whom reportedly suffered a stroke while flying in their single-engine plane over Laconia on August 9, died over the weekend. Their sudden illness while aloft forced their untrained daughter, a passenger, to land the aircraft.

According to Tamsin Stubbs, a spokesperson for Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, William Truman, 62, who was piloting the Piper Malibu, died Saturday night, August 21 at 11:30 p.m., and his wife Diana "Dani" Truman, 60, like his daughter a passenger, died Sunday, August 22, at 10:50 p.m.

The couple had been taken to Dartmouth-Hitchcock after their 30 year-old daughter, Jennifer, had been coaxed into successfully landing the plane by an air traffic controller. She had contacted the Federal Aviation Administration in Merrimack for help in bringing the aircraft down when both her father and mother in short succession passed-out from what she suspected was carbon monoxide poisoning.

Stubbs declined to reveal how the couple died. "The family has asked that we not reveal any information about the cause of death," Stubbs said.

One source close to the family, however, indicated that instead of carbon monoxide being the culprit, William Truman actually suffered a stroke, and the shock of that event caused his wife to have a stroke as well. "They died from stroke related complications," the source said. "Neither recovered following the incident."

Calling hours for friends and family of the couple will be held at the Wilkinson Beane Funeral Home on Pleasant Street in Laconia from 6 to 9 p.m. on Friday. Funeral services have been scheduled for 11 a.m. at the Congregational Church in Laconia.