Commuter Plane Crashes In Northeastern Missouri, Killing At Least Eight; Two Survive
Two passengers, a man and woman, were known to have survived when the Corporate Airlines twin-engine turboprop, flying as part of American Airlines' AmericanConnection service, crashed about 7:45 p.m. Tuesday on a regular flight from St. Louis to Kirksville.
``We see car accidents with worse injuries coming in here every week,'' said Dr. Charles Zeman, director of trauma services at Northeast Regional Medical Center. ``This is truly a miracle.''
Zeman, a surgeon who treated the male survivor, said the 68-year-old broke his left hip and a bone in his lower back, but wasn't burned. The second known survivor, a 44-year-old woman, suffered a compound fracture of right arm and mild to severe burns over 8 percent of her body.
Al Maglio, a freelance photographer who said he arrived at the same time as highway patrol officers, said the woman ran up to the emergency workers, told them she'd been in the plane and said, ``It came apart before it hit the ground.''
Officials have not released the survivor's names or said where they were from. Zeman said both were in fair condition Wednesday morning, but were staying in intensive care for observation.
The National Transportation Safety Board said the airplane, a British Aerospace Jetstream 32, crashed on approach to the Kirksville airport. NTSB investigators arrived at the airport Wednesday morning and recovered both of the plane's flight data recorders.
``The black boxes are very important to the investigation, provided they're in good condition,'' said NTSB member Carol Carmody. ``These looked like they were. We never know until we read them out.''
Many of the plane's passengers planned to attend a Wednesday conference on humanism in medicine, said Philip Slocum, dean and vice president for medical affairs at the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine. Two were from the Englewood Cliffs, N.J.-based Arnold P. Gold Foundation, said Barbara Packer, the foundation's managing director.
Also on board were faculty members from Florida, Ohio and Utah, he said. He declined to release their identities.
``As bad as you think it's going to be, it's worse to go through it. There's been a lot of tears. It's very painful,'' Slocum said.
Sgt. Brent Bernhardt, of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, said rescue workers were holding out hope the five missing _ all passengers _ also survived the crash and would be discovered in the daylight.
``We had officers out there all night,'' Bernhardt said. ``I'm confident that they did a good search, but I can tell you the area is heavy brush, it's hard to see through. When the daylight arrives, it's going to help us out tremendously.''
Rescuers found the plane's fuselage in flames and largely intact, with its wings broken off but nearby, Adair County Chief Deputy Larry Logston said. Other debris, including the tail, was scattered over an area more than a half-mile wide, Logston said. The plane clipped treetops before crashing on private property in a wooded area between two fields, Logston said.
Eight people _ including the two crew members _ were found dead in the burned fuselage, some still in their seats, Logston said. The female survivor was walking around when rescuers arrived, and the man was found in brush about 25 feet from the fuselage, he said.
Logston said the two known survivors were discovered ``so close to the plane we're imagining the others probably should have been close to the plane if they survived.'' He said the number of searchers had been scaled back from 100 to about 30.
The crew's last communication indicated the plane was on a normal approach to the airport, located about three miles south of Kirksville, with no mention of any problems, said Elizabeth Isham Cory, an FAA spokeswoman in Chicago.
Bernhardt said the contact came at 7:27 p.m, ``basically telling them they were about 10 miles south of the airport getting ready to make their final approach to the runway.''
``At that point there was no distress signal, no sign that there were any problems aboard the aircraft,'' he said.
Weather conditions at the time of the crash were overcast with misting and some thunderstorms in the area, according to an FAA weather observation system. It wasn't immediately known whether it was storming where the plane went down or weather was a factor.
Corporate Airlines, based in Smyrna, Tenn., began operating in 1996 and is affiliated with American Airlines. As AmericanConnection, Corporate provides 70 flights from 13 cities in the Midwest to St. Louis and Nashville.
A Wednesday morning flight from Kirksville to St. Louis was canceled.
Doug Caldwell, Corporate Airlines' chief executive, said the crash was the airline's first fatal accident. The company has 250 employees and flies 17 Jetstream 32s. The airline was trying to contact the families of all the passengers Tuesday night, he said.
``It's far too early ... to know the cause of this tragic accident,'' Caldwell said Wednesday after arriving in Kirksville. ``Our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone touched by this tragedy.''
Kirksville is about 220 miles northwest of St. Louis.
