8 Die in Crash of Corporate Plane After It Apparently Breaks Apart

A corporate aircraft apparently broke up in flight and crashed on a wooded ridge Monday, killing all eight people aboard, authorities said.

Witnesses and investigators said the twin-engine turboprop Beechcraft King Air 200 seemed to break apart en route from Chicago to Baraboo, about 150 miles away.

“What we’ve seen so far is indicative of an in-flight breakup,” said Stephen Wilson, a National Transportation Safety Board investigator.

The plane had left Meigs Field in Chicago at 7:51 a.m. and went down half an hour later about five miles northwest of here and about 60 miles short of Baraboo, authorities said.

“The pilot was on his descent toward Baraboo when he radioed, ‘Mayday, mayday,’ several times,” said Mort Edelstein, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman in Chicago.

One engine was found a short distance from the main part of the wreckage. Another was found in woods nearby. Torn metal and paper littered the area.

“There were parts of the plane all over, I’d say in a circle a thousand feet around, and there was a hole big enough to park a car in,” said Tom Beane, who owns farmland in the area.

Passengers included representatives of Danbury Printing Co. of Danbury, Conn., and Webtech Inc. of Effingham, Ill., officials said. The victims’ identities were being withheld until relatives could be notified.

However, the family of Cecil J. Previdi, president of Danbury Printing, said in a telephone interview that he was among the victims.