Plane crash kills up to 17
Flight to Montana was believed to be ski trip for children
BUTTE – A small plane crashed Sunday as it approached an airport in Montana, killing 14 to 17 people, including several children, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said.
The single engine turboprop plane crashed in Butte’s Holy Cross Cemetery about 500 feet from the airport while attempting to land, said spokesman Mike Fergus.
An investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board offered few details at a press conference in Butte on Sunday night.
“We are just beginning our investigation,” said Kristi Dunks. “We don’t have a lot of information at this time.
“Certain family members were contacted,” she said. “At this point, I don’t have an exact number.”
The aircraft had departed from Oroville, Calif., Sunday morning and the pilot had filed a flight plan showing a destination of Bozeman, about 85 miles 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, Ore., Fergus said. He didn’t know who was operating the plane.
Calls to local authorities were not immediately returned.
Dunks said the NTSB investigation won’t really begin until today.
Witnesses told the Montana Standard that they saw the plane go into a nose dive 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.
The Oregon secretary of state’s Web site listed Eagle Cap’s president as an I. Felkamp. An online directory of Pilatus owners also named a Bud Felkamp as an owner. Attempts to reach Felkamp by phone were unsuccessful.
In California, Tom Hagler said he saw a group of about a dozen children and four adults Sunday morning at the Oroville Municipal Airport, about 70 miles north of Sacramento.
Hagler, owner of Table Mountain Aviation, a business that conducts flight training and maintenance at the city-owned airport, described the children as ranging from about 6 to 10 years old. He let the children into his building to use the restroom.
“There were a lot of kids in the group,” Hagler said. “A lot of really cute kids.”
Hagler said he showed the pilot where he could fill up on fuel, and the pilot said he expected his flight to take two-and-a-half hours.
Hagler said he sees Pilatus PC-12 planes come to the airport a couple of times a week, usually bringing in loads of duck hunters. Such planes are certified to carry 12 people.