championship crashed early Tuesday on approach to a central Illinois airport, killing all seven on board, including two members of Illinois State University's athletics department.
The airplane had left Indianapolis about an hour before it crashed
roughly 2-1/2 miles from its destination, the Central Illinois Regional
Airport in Bloomington, Illinois, about 160 miles to the west, officials
said.
Torrey
Ward, 36, the associate head coach for Illinois State's men's basketball
team, Aaron Leetch, 37, a deputy athletics director, and five
supporters of the program died in the crash, the university said.
"Words cannot fully express the grief that is felt in the
wake of such a tragedy," Illinois State President Larry Dietz said in a
statement. "We move between shock and profound sadness."
The McLean County Coroner's Office identified all seven of
the men, who were all from the Bloomington-Normal area and were found
belted into their seats in the wreckage.
Also killed were
Terry Stralow, 64, Scott Bittner, 42, Andy Butler, 40, Jason Jones, 45
and pilot Thomas Hileman, 51, the coroner's office said.
The airplane had been in contact with air traffic control
in Peoria, which was handling approaches because the Bloomington
airport's tower is closed at that time, officials said.
A search was launched when the airplane did not report
back to controllers that it had landed and it was not found at the
airport, the McLean County Sheriff's Department said in a statement.
The crashed airplane was found about three hours later in a
soybean field with no survivors, the sheriff's office said.
The Federal Aviation Administration identified the
airplane as a Cessna 414, which is a twin-engine airplane that carries
up to 10 people. The National Transportation Safety Board has taken
custody of the airplane and is leading the investigation.
Source:Reuters
No comments:
Post a Comment