Kids on ski trip among 14 dead in plane crash
Güncelleme Tarihi:
AFP
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mart 24, 2009 00:00
LOS ANGELES, Calafornia - U.S. investigators searched for clues yesterday after a small plane taking children to a ski trip crashed in a cemetery in the state of Montana, killing 14 people on board, officials said.
The plane, a single engine turboprop, was heading from Oroville, California, just north of San Francisco on a 900-mile (1,500-kilometer) journey to Bozeman in the northern state of Montana. However, at some point "they diverted into Butte (Montana) where it crashed ... 500 feet (150 meters) short of the runway" of a local airport, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Les Dorr said.
"We think that it was probably a ski trip for the kids," another FAA spokesman, Mike Fergus, told AFP.
Early reports indicated 17 people had been killed when the plane plunged into a cemetery, but the death toll was later revised to 14, officials said.
Fergus said the crash occurred at around 2:30 p.m., just south of the Bert Mooney Airport in Butte, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) west of Bozeman. He said the plane "crashed into Holy Cross cemetery, about 500 feet (150 meters) from the airport while attempting to land."
The FAA officials refused to speculate on the cause of the crash or on weather conditions prevalent at the accident site.
A couple who witnessed the crash took a picture showing towering flames shooting up in the cemetery and a tree ablaze. "We watched this plane just take a nose-dive right into the cemetery," witness Martha Guidoni told CNN.
She and her husband Steve rushed to the scene of the crash to see if anybody could be helped, but she said: "We were too late. There was nothing to help." Steve Guidoni said when he got to the crash site "everything was on fire."
"And there wasn't much left of the plane, actually. It was embedded in the ground. It went into the ground. It caught a big tree on fire. I looked to see if there was anybody I could pull out, but there wasn't nothing there. I couldn't see nothing. Some luggage strewn around and fire. That was about it. There was some plane parts," he said. He said the plane left a hole 20 feet (six meters) deep in the ground. He said it normally carries nine or 10 people, but that the fatal flight might have been configured to legally carry more passengers. Aviation attorney Mary Schiavo, a former federal inspector, she was familiar with the type of aircraft and said it was not certified to carry such a large load.
"We think that it was probably a ski trip for the kids," another FAA spokesman, Mike Fergus, told AFP.
Early reports indicated 17 people had been killed when the plane plunged into a cemetery, but the death toll was later revised to 14, officials said.
Fergus said the crash occurred at around 2:30 p.m., just south of the Bert Mooney Airport in Butte, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) west of Bozeman. He said the plane "crashed into Holy Cross cemetery, about 500 feet (150 meters) from the airport while attempting to land."
The FAA officials refused to speculate on the cause of the crash or on weather conditions prevalent at the accident site.
A couple who witnessed the crash took a picture showing towering flames shooting up in the cemetery and a tree ablaze. "We watched this plane just take a nose-dive right into the cemetery," witness Martha Guidoni told CNN.
She and her husband Steve rushed to the scene of the crash to see if anybody could be helped, but she said: "We were too late. There was nothing to help." Steve Guidoni said when he got to the crash site "everything was on fire."
"And there wasn't much left of the plane, actually. It was embedded in the ground. It went into the ground. It caught a big tree on fire. I looked to see if there was anybody I could pull out, but there wasn't nothing there. I couldn't see nothing. Some luggage strewn around and fire. That was about it. There was some plane parts," he said. He said the plane left a hole 20 feet (six meters) deep in the ground. He said it normally carries nine or 10 people, but that the fatal flight might have been configured to legally carry more passengers. Aviation attorney Mary Schiavo, a former federal inspector, she was familiar with the type of aircraft and said it was not certified to carry such a large load.