In brief: Private jet crashes during takeoff

Bedford, Mass. – A private jet with seven people aboard crashed and caught fire Saturday night as it was leaving Hanscom Field in Massachusetts, authorites said.

A spokesman for the Massachusetts Port Authority, which operates the air field in Bedford, said emergency personnel were still working the scene overnight Saturday and he couldn’t say what condition those aboard the Gulfstream IV aircraft were in.

Jim Peters of the Federal Aviation Administration said the aircraft apparently ran off a runway at 9:40 p.m. Saturday as the plane was taking off. Peters said officials told the FAA the aircraft then caught fire.

The plane was headed to Atlantic City International Airport in New Jersey at the time.

70-year-long couple die one day apart

Pittsburgh – A Pittsburgh couple married for 70 years have died a day apart.

Their daughter Suzanne Rosenberger said her 95-year-old father fell ill after saying goodbye to her 91-year-old mother and died the next day.

The couple, Robert and Eleanor Schilling, died in late May at a personal care home, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

Rosenberger said her mother could barely remember life before meeting her father. She said her mother ignored her family’s wishes when she ran off to get married in April 1944.

Their marriage endured even though Eleanor Schilling was Republican and Protestant, while her husband was a Catholic Democrat. Rosenberger recalled that Sundays were “interesting.”