Plane crash in Montana leaves 17 dead

www.faa.gov

A small aircraft crashed in northern Montana, killing the 17 people on board the flight, federal aviation officials have reported. Many of the fatalities were said to be children on a skiing holiday.

“We think that it was probably a ski trip for the kids,” noted Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokesman Mike Fergus, in comments to the AFP. He added that a preliminary report indicated the 17 people on board died when the plane crashed into a local cemetery.

The aircraft was a single engine turbo-prop, headed from Oroville, in northern California, on the 900-mile flight to Bozeman, Montana.

At some point, however, “they diverted into Butte (Montana) where it crashed … 500 feet short of the runway,” said Les Dorr, also speaking on behalf of the FAA.

According to Dorr, the crash occurred at approximately 2:30pm local time, just south of Butte’s Bert Mooney Airport, which is around 80 miles to the west of Bozeman.

He added that the aircraft “crashed into Holy Cross cemetery, about 500 feet from the airport while attempting to land.”

Neither of the FAA spokesmen would speculate on what could have caused the crash nor on the prevailing weather conditions at the time.

Thanks to www.afp.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

www.faa.gov