BURLINGTON, Wash. -- A plane registered to a Montana oil-and-gas exploration company crashed and burned near this northwest Washington town Thursday, killing all three people on board, federal officials said.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer said the plane, an A-36 Beechcraft Bonanza, was on a flight from Havre, Mont., where it was registered to Textana Inc.

The Skagit County Coroner on Friday identified the victims as John O. Brown, 60, Randall McPherson, 59, and Christopher Schafer, 25.  All three were from Havre.

The plane was approaching to land at the Skagit Regional Airport, about 60 miles north of Seattle, when it dropped off radar about 11 a.m. A National Transportation Safety Board investigator, Kurt Anderson, said the single-engine plane was on its second approach to the airport at the time.

Heavy fog cut visibility to about a quarter-mile at the time the plane crashed, and officials said the pilot had already made one landing attempts before crashing. They said the pilot had missed his approached but announced he could see the runway despite the fog.

Officials also attempted to contact the pilot on his cell phone, Anderson said. When that failed, agencies began searching, and the crash was spotted by a Skagit County sheriff's department helicopter at about 1 p.m. in a wooded area near Bay View State Park. It was mostly consumed by flames, the sheriff's office said.

The plane's wing tips and tail were the only parts that apparently weren't burned beyond recognition when the plane went down. The whole center of the plane was found in the form of charred wreckage.

A woman who answered the phone at Textana said only: "Yes, it's our plane. Yes, it's our people." She declined to give her name.

Anderson said visibility was a quarter of a mile with a cloud ceiling of 100 feet at the time of the crash, although he said it was too early to say whether the weather played any part in the crash.

The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board were investigating.