Awful :(
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29828359/
QuoteFAA: 17 die in Montana plane crash
Accident appears to involve children who were heading on a ski trip
BREAKING NEWS
updated 2 minutes ago
BUTTE, Mont. - A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman says 17 people are dead after a plane crashed while approaching the airport in Butte.
Spokesman Mike Fergus says the single engine turboprop plane departed from Oroville, Calif., at about 11 a.m. Pacific time. The pilot had filed a flight plan showing a final destination of Bozeman.
Fergus says the pilot canceled his flight plan at some point and headed for Butte. The plane crashed about 500 feet from the airport while attempting to land and caught fire.
Fergus says there are no known fatalities on the ground. He says preliminary reports indicate the dead include numerous children.
"We think that it was probably a ski trip for the kids," Fergus said.
Fergus says the plane was registered to Eagle Cap Leasing Inc. in Enterprise, Oregon, but he doesn't know who was operating the plane.
Calls to local authorities were not immediately returned.
The Montana Standard reported on its Web site that the plane crashed in the Holy Cross Cemetery, just south of the airport. An eyewitness told the Standard that the plane was doing steep angle turns and then went into a nose dive.
"All of a sudden the pilot lost control and went into a nosedive," Kenny Gulick, 14, told the news organization. "He couldn't pull out in time and crashed into the trees of the cemetery," Gulick said.
Fergus said the Pilatus PC-12 aircraft was manufactured in 2001. He said the National Transportation Safety Board has an investigator located in Butte who was thought to be on scene. The FAA's flight standards investigator was en route.
Martha and Steve Guidoni, who were at a gas station across from the cemetery, said the plane "just nose-dived into the ground."
"My husband went over there to see if he could do anything," Martha Guidoni said.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for more details.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press
People died in an airplane crash?
Did Hannah Montana's plane crash???///
Looks like overloading was a factor.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29828359/
When I first read the thread title I thought it as about a stealth fighter dead in Montana.
Quote from: Admiral Yi on March 23, 2009, 07:37:53 PM
When I first read the thread title I thought it as about a stealth fighter dead in Montana.
Didn't the Air Force recently retire the FA-117?
Was it overloaded? At least two of the passengers were children. Did anybody get a projected GVW?
Is it really all that awful? Planes crash all the time.