US plane crash kills 17, including children

[K5054NZ]

MONTANA - A small plane crashed as it approached an airport in Montana today, killing 17 people, including several children, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said.

The single engine turboprop plane crashed about 500 feet (152 meters) from the airport in Butte while attempting to land, said spokesman Mike Fergus. The Montana Standard reported in an online story that it crashed in Butte's Holy Cross Cemetery.

The aircraft had departed from Oroville, California, and the pilot had filed a flight plan showing a destination of Bozeman, about 85 miles (136 kilometers) southeast of Butte. But the pilot canceled his flight plan at some point and headed for Butte, Fergus said.

Preliminary reports indicate the dead include numerous children, he said. There were no known fatalities on the ground, he added.

"We think that it was probably a ski trip for the kids," Fergus said.

The plane was registered to Eagle Cap Leasing Inc. in Enterprise, Oregon, Fergus said. He didn't know who was operating the plane.

Calls to local authorities were not immediately returned.

Witnesses told the Standard that they saw the plane go into a nosedive into the cemetery.

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.

Fergus said the Pilatus PC-12 aircraft was manufactured in 2001.

National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Keith Holloway said its investigators were expected to arrive in Butte late Sunday or early Monday.

The incident was the country's third major plane crash this year. All 155 people onboard survived after a US Airways jetliner landed in New York's Hudson River in January when a flock of geese disabled both engines, and a commuter plane fell on a house in a suburb of Buffalo, New York, killing all 49 passengers and a man in the home in February.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/artic...jectid=10563106

[Njbb1995]

Sad day for Aviation today

[spongebob206]

[FlyingKiwi]

The death toll has since been revised to 14 - no less of a tragedy though, especially given apparently half of those were children.

[victor_alpha_charlie]

How do you fit 17 into a PC-12?

[Naki]

There was actually 14 but it was still overloaded passenger wise

[cambridgedan]

I wonder what caused the crash, and i bet to many people in it didnt help altho if they are mostly kids i guess you can get more in cuz they weigh less, still sad tho